TK 
165 
S65  Sloane- 


1^^,.^^^^^^ 

Southern  Branch 
of  the 

University  of  California 

Los  Angeles 

Form  L   1 

Ttt 

\0?5 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


'93, 


Form  L-9-15m-8,'26 


An  Electrical  Library. 

By  PROF.  T.  O'CONOR  SLOANE. 

How  to  Become  a  Successful  Electrician. 

PRICE,   $1.00. 

Electricity  Simplified. 

PRICE,   $1  OO. 

Electric  Toy  Making,  Dynamo  Building,  etc. 

PRICE,   $1.OO. 

Arithmetic  of  Electricity. 

PRICE,  $1.00. 

Standard  Electrical  Dictionary. 

PRICE,  $3  00. 

Complete  set  of  the  above  Electrical  Library  in  neat  box, 
Price  $5.00. 

MUNN  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

361    Broadway,  NEW  YORK. 


HOW  TO  BECOME  A  SUCCESSFUL 
ELECTRICIAN 


THE  STUDIES   TO   BE   FOLLOWED,   METHODS 

OF   WORK,   FIELDS  OF  OPERATION 

AND    ETHICS    OF    THE 

PROFESSION 


BY 
T.  O'CONOR   SLOANE,  PH.D. 

AUTHOR  OF 

The  Standard  Electrical  Dictionary,1'     "Electricity  Simplified,"  etc. 


Jilustruteb 


NEW  YORK 

MUNN  &  CO. 
1899 


COPYRIGHT,  1894,  BY 
NORMAN  W.  HENLEY  &  CO. 


PREFACE. 


The  title  of  this  little  work  is  open  to  a  variety  of 
interpretations,  and  may  call  down  different  criticisms  on 
the  author.  The  nature  of  each  criticism  will  depend  upon 
the  ideas  the  reader  possesses  of  what  constitutes  success. 
When  one  of  the  wealthiest  men  in  the  United  States 
died,  and  page  after  page  of  the  daily  papers  was  devoted 
to  the  story  of  his  life,  it  must  have  occurred  to  many  that 
a  man  who,  as  the  sum  of  all  those  columns,  could  not 
secure  a  favorable  comment  had  not  lived  successfully. 
Yet  he  began  poor  and  ended  rich,  and  these  few  words, 
it  is  to  be  feared,  describe  a  very  usual  idea  of  success. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  if  this  book  told  of  a  sure  road  to 
wealth,  by  means  however  questionable,  it  would  be  in 
great  demand.  Those  who  look  in  it  for  this  will  naturally 
be  disappointed. 

Prefaces  are  the  least  read  portions  of  a  book,  and 
this  preface  will  share  the  common  lot.  Yet  in  it  will 
be  given  in  one  word  the  basis  and  corner-stone  of  success 
for  each  reader.  It  is  himself.  If  the  reader  is  of  the 
right  stuff,  and  cares  sufficiently  for  success,  he  will  succeed. 
If  he  is  not  of  this  material,  no  book  and  no  study  will 
produce  the  result. 

It  seems  a  hard  thing  to  say  that  honor  and  honesty 


are  not  in  themselves  favorable  to  progress  in  the  accumu- 
lation of  a  fortune.  He  who,  as  he  feels  the  end  ap- 
proaching, looks  back  on  the  long  struggle  and  feels  that 
honor  was  his  guide  and  that  he  has  wronged  no  man, 
who,  as  he  thinks  of  his  temptations,  can  know  that  he 
has  mercifully  been  allowed  to  escape  without  stain,  can 
but  tremble  as  he  recalls  the  risks  he  ran,  and  accept  an 
honorable  life  as  a  rich  measure  of  good  fortune.  What 
value  will  a  competence  won  by  wrong  methods  have,  when 
but  a  few  years,  and  those  at  the  wrong  end  of  life,  are 
left  for  its  enjoyment?  Leave  to  those  who  come  after 
you  a  legacy  of  memories  and  traditions  of  a  well-spent 
life,  and  you  will  be  successful. 

All  this  sounds  like  moralizing  and  may,  by  him  who 
reads  this  preface,  be  interpreted  as  revealing  the  nature 
cf  the  book  itself.  This  it  does ;  for  the  author's  idea  of 
success  is  here  disclosed.  He  believes  that  the  man  who 
works  for  a  fortune  by  good  and  bad  means  alike  is  a 
dreary  failure,  whether  he  reaches  his  goal  or  not. 

The  book  is  left  now  to  the  reader. 

"  Perhaps  it  may  turn  out  a  sang, 

Perhaps  turn  out  a  sermon." 
In   either  case,  it  will  not  be  a  very  long  one. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
INTRODUCTORY. 

Problems  of  the  Electrical  Engineer — His  Relations  to 
the  Investigator  in  Pure  Science— The  Self-Taught  Elec- 
trician—  Age  and  Natural  Aptitude  —  Thoroughness  — 
Observation — Attention  to  Little  Things — Openness  of 
Character — One-Sidedness — Qualities  of  an  Engineer  — 
Idleness  the  Greatest  Fault . . 


CHAPTER  II. 

MATHEMATICS. 

Arithmetic — Practice  Afforded  in  Mechanics — Powers  of 
Ten  and  Fractional  Exponents — Logarithms — Algebra — 
Geometry — Trigonometry  —  Mensuration  —  Ohm's  Law — 
Mathematics  of  Chemistry — Analytical  Geometry — Cal- 
culus—Conclusion   29 

CHAPTER  III. 

PHYSICS. 

Heat  and  Light — Examples  of  Application  of  Physics—- 
Bad Practices  in  Distribution  of  Light— Reflection  of 
Wasted  Rays  —  Economy  of  the  Incandescent  Lamp — 
Mechanics — Value  of  Definitions — Energy  —  Theory  of 
Dimensions — Methods  of  Study — Experimenting — Physics 
without  Apparatus «......„,  38 

CHAPTER  IV. 

CHEMISTHY. 

Difficulties  of  Experimenting — The  Coal-Fire  and  the 
Plant — The  Reaction  of  the  Coal  Fire — Its  Equation  and 
What  It  Tells — Equations  the  Short-Hand  of  Chemistry— 
Stoichiometry  —  Experiments  —  Precautions  —  bntter7 
Chemicals — Thermo-Chetnistry —  Chemical  Recreations — 
Books — Outlines  of  a  Chemical  Course — How  to  Hear. — 
Value  of  a  Teacher .  47 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V. 
ELECTRICITY  AT  HOME. 

Electrical  Experiments  at  Home  —  Modern  Physics 
Taught  Quantitatively — Simple  Appliances  Now  Used — 
Making  Electrical  Apparatus  at  Home — The  Wheatstone 
Bridge — Galvanometer  Resistance  Coils — Current  Strength 
—Batteries— Static  Electricity—  Electrometers — Conden- 
sers—Ampere's Law— Magnetism 59 

CHAPTER  VI. 
MECHANICAL  ENGINEERING. 

Ground  Covered  by  Mechanical  Engineering — Its  Place 
in  Electric  Practice — Machines  and  Tools— Engine  Testing 
—Strength  of  Materials— Machinery— Use  of  the  Hands- 
Extremes  in  Practice  —  College  Work  in  Practical  Me- 
chanics— Machine-Shop  Work  for  the  Student —  Observa- 
tion and  Reading— Faulty  Practice 68 

CHAPTER  VII. 

DRAWING. 

Drawing  a  Poor  Reliance  by  Itself — Its  Importance  to 
the  Engineer— Free- Hand  Practice— Sketches  in  Note- 
Books  of  Physics  or  Chemistry — Shade  Lines — Pen  or 
Pencil  Practice— Dimension  Sketches— Profile  Paper- 
Descriptive  Geometry — Perspective — Blue  Prints — Care  of 
Instruments — Conventional  Representations — Catalogues. .  77 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

TEACHERS. 

Practicability  of  Obtaining  Assistance  in  Study— Solving 
Difficulties — Making  Every  One  a  Teacher— University 
Extension — School  Courses  in  Science — Different  Classes 
of  Students — The  Hard  Workers  in  the  Laboratory— Diffi- 
culty of  Teaching  Electricity 86 

CHAPTER  IX. 

ELECTRICAL  FACTORY  WORK  FOR  STUDENTS. 
Utility  of  Factory  Work  for  Students — Who  Would  Be 
Most  Benefited— Uselessness  of  Some  Positions— Small  and 


CONTENTS  vii 

Large  Works — Premiums  Paid  for  Positions  in  Factories- 
Time  Expended  in  Factory  Work  by  Students — Schedules 
of  Courses 92 

CHAPTER  X. 
COLLEGE  EDUCATION. 

Colleges — Disadvantages  and  Advantages  of  a  College 
Course — Scholarships  —  Tutorships  —  Large  and  Small 
Colleges — Apparatus — Electrical  Course  Studies 98 

CHAPTER  XI. 
STEAM  ENGINEERING. 

Wasted  Powers  of  Nature — Wastefulness  of  Coal — 
Poor  Economy  of  the  Steam-Engine — Coal  Consumption 
of  a  Station — Unfair  Records — Errors  in  Statements — Fads 
— Engines  of  Different  Types — Revolutions  in  Engineering 
— Steam  Engineering  a  Special  Study 107 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  MANUFACTURING  ENGINEER. 
Different  Work  Done  in  Factories — Dynamo  and  Motor 
Building — Improvements  in  Design — Faults  of  Cheap 
Motors — Improving  the  Magnetic  Circuit — Small  Factories 
—Bad  Installation  of  Good  Machinery— Making  Parts  for 
Distribution  of  Electric  Power — Meters  and  Their  Defects 
—Testing  Materials 114 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
THE  CONSTRUCTING  ENGINEER. 

The  Erection  of  Plants— General  Knowledge  Required 
—The  Generating  Plant  and  Its  Functions— Boilers  and 
Engines — Advanced  Svstein  of  Running  Plants — Practice 
and  Theory " 123 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
THE  STATION  ENGINEEK. 

The  Qualities  Required— Dealing  with  Mankind— The 
Public  —  Complaints  —  Importance  of  Courtesy — Skilled 
Workmen — Promotion  from  the  Ranks — Station  Economy 
— The  President — Executive  Ability — Dependence  on  the 
Factory 129 


viii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XV. 

INVENTING. 

Should  One  Become  an  Inventor? — What  Constitutes  a 
Successful  Invention — Construction  and  Invention — Use- 
ful and  Useless  Inventions— The  Practical  View  To  Be 
Taken— Novelty  as  Well  as  Originality  Requisite— Patent 
Suits— Patents  and  Caveats— Claims— Establishing  Date 
of  Invention 136 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
ORIGINAL  INVESTIGATION, 

Qualifications  Required  for  Original  Research — Useless 
Theorizing  —  Incompetent  Theorizers  —  Originality  — 
Publication  of  Results— Writing  Papers 142 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

SUCCESS. 

The  Race  for  Money— The  Nob  er  Life— The  End  for 
Which  We  Are  Adapted  —  Hon-  r  and  Honesty  — The 
Human  Element — Directors  and  Executive  Officers — The 
Business  Man — Dealing  with  Vanity — Rings  and  Cliques 
— Contractors — Over-Scrupulousness—Workmen 150 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

READING. 

English  Technical  Books— The  Index— Reading  a  Book 
Several  Times — Thinking — Reading  an  Instrument — Tak- 
ing Notes  —  Electrical  Journals — Range  of  Reading  — 
Definitions — Collecting  a  Library — Scrap-Books — Card  and 
Book  Indexes  —  Scrap- Leaflets  —  Rapid  Reading— Biog- 
raphies   164 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

ETHICS. 

Professional  Life— The  Gentleman— Truth,  Justice  and 
Honor — Examples  of  Successful  Lives — Brush — Dolbear — 
Glilcher  —  Lodge  —  Pacinotti  —  Eiihu  Thompson  — 
Conclusion  . .  . .  179 


CHAPTER    I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

PROBLEMS  OF  THE  ELECTRICAL  ENGINEER — HIS  RELA- 
TIONS TO  THE  INVESTIGATOR  IN  PURE  SCIENCE — 
THE  SELF-TAUGHT  ELECTRICIAN — AGE  AND  NAT- 
URAL APTITUDE THOROUGHNESS  —  OBSERVA- 
TION—ATTENTION TO  LITTLE  THINGS — OPENNESS 

OF    CHARACTER — ONE-SIDEDNESS QUALITIES    OF 

AN  ENGINEER — IDLENESS  THE  GREATEST  FAULT. 

How  to  become  a  successful  electrician  is  a  prob- 
lem which  cannot  be  positively  solved  in  words. 
The  same  qualities  which  make  a  good  business  man 
will  go  far  to  make  a  successful  professional  man. 
While  the  success  or  failure  of  life  depends  principally 
on  the  natural  characteristics  of  the  individual,  it  is 
possible  and  right  to  try  to  direct  and  guide  the 
exertions  of  young  aspirants,  and  to  make  their  early 
work  more  directly  conducive  to  the  end  in  view. 

The  term  electrician  includes  a  very  wide  range  of 
occupations.  In  laboratories  some  of  the  most  exact 
work  of  the  scientist  is  done  in  electricity.  Such 
operations  require  a  special  training,  which  can  only 


10  FIELDS  OF  WORK. 

be  had  in  the  laboratory,  and  which  is  generally 
acquired  in  the  advanced  school  of  science.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  man  fortunate  enough  to  have  grad- 
uated at  one  of  our  great  universities  as  an  electrician 
has  little  need  of  outside  direction  in  the  elements  of 
his  profession.  During  his  college  course  the  studies 
he  must  pursue  are  determined  for  him.  The  student 
less  fortunate  and  equally  adapted  for  science,  who 
cannot  take  a  college  course,  may  find  some  words  of 
direction  and  advice  useful. 

From  the  force  of  circumstances,  this  book,  written 
principally  for  those  who  cannot  go  to  college,  must 
take  special  cognizance  of  electrical  engineering. 
This  is  the  great  field  for  the  self-educated  electrician. 
From  it  he  may  graduate  into  the  laboratory  and  take 
his  part  in  original  investigations,  but  it  is  fair  to 
assume  that  he  will  first  be  an  engineer. 

An  electrical  engineer  is  one  who  works  in  some  of 
the  commercial  and  more  directly  practical  branches 
of  electricity.  He  may  be  a  constructor  of  dynamos 
and  motors  ;  he  may  go  out  of  the  shop  and  be  entirely 
occupied  in  erecting  plants  ;  or  he  may  be  in  charge 
of  such  plants  when  running,  having  a  hand  in  their 
erection  or  in  the  construction  of  the  machinery.  He 
is  understood  generally  to  deal  with  the  larger  forms 
of  electrical  apparatus.  One  who  spends  his  time  in 
minor  operations,  such  as  the  measurement  of  capac- 
ities and  resistances,  would  hardly  be  placed  in  the 
category  of  engineers. 


THE   ELECTRICAL   ENGINEER.  11 

In  the  laboratory  of  the  richly  endowed  college,  the 
holder  of  a  professorship  may  devote  much  of  his 
time  to  original  research.  His  work  may  take  the 
direction  of  determining  electric  factors,  or  of  estab- 
lishing the  relations  of  electro-magnetic  waves  to  light 
waves.  He  may  try  to  solve  the  mystery  of  convec- 
tion currents  in  a  liquid,  and  of  electrolytic  convection 
in  gelatinized  solutions.  Such  work  is  hardly  within 
the  scope  of  the  electrical  engineer.  The  scientific 
investigator,  confining  his  work  to  the  realms  of 
theory,  is  the  ally  and  guide  of  the  active  operator. 
He  finds  his  field  in, the  laboratory,  and  his  success  is 
judged  largely  by  the  originality  of  his  investigations. 
Faraday's  discovery  of  the  extra  current,  his  obser- 
vation of  the  minute  spark  produced  when  a  circuit 
of  high  self-induction  was  broken,  is  one  of  his 
triumphs. 

The  engineer,  on  the  other  hand,  is  in  the  domain 
of  active  commercial  life,  dealing  not  with  abstract 
theory,  but  with  its  applications.  His  success  is 
judged  not  by  any  apparently  fruitless  achievement, 
but  by  the  balance-sheet.  The  engineer's  work  must 
succeed  commercially,  and  will  be  judged  by  his 
employers.  To  them  he  is  a  source  of  revenue,  no 
more  and  no  less. 

A  number  of  watts  of  energy  are  to  be  employed  at 
some  given  locality  distant  from  a  central  station. 
Shall  a  main  be  laid  to  the  place  in  question,  or  shall 
a  new  station  be  established  there  ?  If  a  main,  how 


12  ENGINEERING  PROBLEMS. 

large  shall  it  be  ?  The  theoretically  satisfactory  way 
is  to  keep  to  one  station,  so  as  to  concentrate  the 
generation  of  energy  in  one  plant,  and  to  supply  it  by 
a  main  of  very  low  resistance  to  the  distant  point. 
Here  the  engineer  has  to  look  at  the  practical  as 
opposed  to  the  theoretical  aspect.  Which  system 
will  pay  the  best  ?  He  cannot  pretend  to  put  in  a 
main  of  really  low  resistance,  because  of  the  original 
cost  of  the  copper,  and  because  of  the  interest  which 
would  be  charged  on  the  investment.  He  can  put 
in  a  high  resistance  main  within  the  limits  of  cost, 
but  the  loss  of  potential,  inevitable  to  its  use,  involves 
the  loss  of  energy,  which  means  the  waste  of  coal. 
A  distant  independent  station  will  necessitate  extra 
cost  in  generation  of  energy,  but  will  such  money 
loss  exceed  that  due  to  the  fall  in  potential  in  the 
small  main  ?  Can  he  make  his  main  of  such  a  size 
as  to  reduce  the  fall  in  potential  to  due  limits, 
without  incurring  too  heavy  an  interest  charge  ? 

Such  problems  as  the  above  confront  the  electrical 
engineer,  and  his  success  in  dealing  with  them  must  be 
measured  by  his  finding  the  most  economical  solution. 
Compare  his  work  with  that  of  the  original  investi- 
gator. Faraday's  tiny  spark,  a  minute  fraction  of  an 
inch  in  length,  is  one  of  the  milestones  of  a  life  de- 
voted to  science.  His  purely  theoretical  work  is  at 
the  basis  of  the  profession  to  which  this  book  is  de- 
voted. Yet  the  question  of  money  never  occupied 
Faraday.  He  sacrificed  a  lucrative  practice  simply 


THE  SCIENTIST  AND  HIS  WORK.  13 

to  devote  his  life  to  original  work.  His  abstract 
investigations  have  had  a  part  in  making  possible  the 
practical  work  of  to-day,  and  the  electrical  engineer 
was  made  possible  by  the  disinterested  and  apparently 
useless  work  of  many  original  investigators.  No 
one  could  have  seen  in  their  primitive  apparatus 
the  fathers  of  the  great  dynamos  of  the  present  time. 
The  moral  is  to  be  slow  to  criticise  unfavorably 
purely  scientific  work.  It  may  seem  useless,  but  none 
can  tell  what  it  will  lead  to.  This  lesson  has  been 
so  well  learned  that  there  is  little  need  of  insisting 
upon  it.  No  one  hears  an  electrical  engineer  of  any 
standing  object  to  scientific  investigation.  He  knows 
that  his  whole  profession  is  based  upon  theoretical 
discoveries,  and  that  he  would  have  no  raison  d'etre 
but  for  such  work  as  that  of  Faraday  and  J.  Clerk 
Maxwell.  His  field  is  still  an  unexplained  mystery, 
and  no  one  is  more  anxious  for  the  theorist  to  explore 
it  than  is  the  enlightened  engineer.  So  great  is  his 
respect  for  the  scientist,  that  the  tiny  sparks  of  Hertz's 
experiments  were  hailed  as  a  step  towards  the  direct 
production  of  light.  The  practical  world,  now  better 
educated  and  trained,  which  formerly  thought  so  little 
of  the  extra  current  spark,  looked  with  the  utmost 
interest  on  its  successor,  the  Hertz  spark,  still  smaller 
and  more  insignificant  in  appearance.  The  engineer 
now  sees  at  least  the  possibility  of  his  apparatus 
rivalling  in  efficiency  the  fire-fly  as  a  producer  of 
light. 


14  ASPIRANTS  FOR  THE  PROFESSION. 

Thus  the  bonds  that  with  the  advent  of  electricity 
united  the  scientist  to  the  engineer  grew  stronger 
every  day.  Electrical  engineers  are  more  highly 
educated  than  in  old  times,  and  many  of  them  are 
capable  of  executing  laboratory  investigations  them- 
selves. The  distinction  between  practical  and  scien- 
tific men  has  begun  to  fade  away.  No  longer  jealous 
of  each  other,  they  improve  by  mutual  acquaintance. 
The  scientist  feels  that  he  has  a  larger  audience  than 
before  :  the  engineer  hopes  to  derive  much  practical 
benefit  from  the  college  laboratory. 

The  principal  object  of  this  book  is  to  give  some 
hints  to  aspirants  for  the  profession  who  have  not 
the  advantage  of  a  college  course.  On  all  sides 
such  aspirants  may  be  found  in  the  public  schools,  in 
the  high  schools,  and  in  machine  shops.  On  the  farms 
as  well,  many  a  youth,  when  he  sees  the  electric  lights 
and  electric  cars  in  the  neighboring  village  or  city, 
feels  that  he  would  give  all  that  he  is  worth  to  have 
some  share  in  the  work  of  the  profession  that  annihi- 
lates darkness  and  space. 

The  first  thing  that  such  should  understand  is  that 
it  is  an  uphill  road  which  they  have  to  travel  to 
become  electricians.  As  competitors  they  will  have 
college-bred  men,  fully  as  ambitious  as  themselves, 
and  equally  willing  to  do  anything,  provided  it  is 
electrical.  The  advantage  of  the  college  training  is 
very  great,  but  the  lesson  taught  by  the  experience 
of  successive  generations,  not  only  in  this  country,  but 


HOW  TO   BEGIN.  16 


in  the  Old  World,  is  that  the  poor  man's  son  without 
any  advantages  of  education  can  work  to  the  front, 
and  often  passes  his  better  equipped  competitor. 
Years  of  hard  work  are  before  such  young  men,  but 
they  are  years  whose  like  has  often  been  lived  through, 
and  will  be  lived  through  in  the  future,  with  ultimate 
attainment  of  success. 

Assume  that  a  young  man  of  the  classes  suggested 
above  desires  to  become  an  electrician.  Perhaps  the 
first  thing  to  be  determined  is  whether  he  is  ready 
for  any  kind  of  work.  Taking  the  class  we  speak  of, 
the  first  object  may  be  the  earning  of  some  wages  or 
salary,  even  if  small.  In  such  case  it  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  almost  any  position  about  an  electrical 
works  should  be  acceptable.  It  is  even  conceivable 
that  a  trolley-man,  who  understands  electricity,  might 
graduate  as  an  electrician,  first  being  promoted  to 
work  upon  the  line,  thus  entering  on  some  more 
inspiring  work  than  running  a  car.  Even  in  attending 
to  lamps,  in  collecting  and  distributing  meter-zincs, 
and  in  similar  work,  a  satisfaction  will  be  felt  in  the 
realization  of  the  fact  that  at  least  something  is  being 
learned,  and  that  an  apprenticeship  to  the  profession 
is  being  gone  through. 

The  question  of  age  comes  in.  In  our  schools  of 
science  the  entrance  age  is  often  seventeen  or  eighteen. 
Before  entering,  the  student  has  to  pass  an  exami- 
nation of  more  or  less  scope  and  severity,  which  exami- 
nation includes  matter  appertaining  to  his  proposed 


16  THE  AGE  FOR  BEGINNING. 

profession.  This  tells  us  that  long  before  reaching 
the  age  of  seventeen  a  young  man  may  and  should 
begin  to  study  for  his  chosen  profession.  But  those 
for  whom  this  book  is  written  are  not  all  so  young  as 
this.  Many  may  be  well  past  the  first  four  lusters  of 
a  hard-working  life.  The  general  moral,  nevertheless, 
is  obvious.  The  study  may  be  begun  in  some  sense 
at  quite  an  early  age.  Those  suited  for  the  profession 
will  have  insensibly  worked  on  such  lines,  for  they 
will  have  excelled  in  arithmetic  and  branches  of 
natural  science,  or  at  least  will  have  received  most 
permanent  benefit  from  them.  There  is  no  harm  in 
the  public-school  student  trying  to  give  his  studies 
and  his  home  work  this  direction.  A  scientifically 
disposed  boy  will  find  recreation  in  constructing  bat- 
teries and  electro-magnets,  and  perhaps  in  erecting 
a  telegraph  line  between  his  home  and  that  of  some 
friend.  If  his  home  has  an  electric  door-bell,  he  will 
be  the  one  to  keep  it  in  order.  His  services  may  be 
in  requisition  among  the  neighbors  for  such  things. 
If  it  is  in  a  boy  to  become  an  electrical  engineer,  he 
will  be  apt  to  show  it  pretty  early  in  life. 

But  how  is  such  a  book  as  this  to  help  him  ?  If  he 
looks  over  its  headings  it  may  seem  to  him  that  an 
electrician  has  to  be  a  very  accomplished  person. 
This  is  strictly  true — true  not  only  of  the  electrician, 
who  deserves  to  succeed,  but  true  of  others  as  well. 
The  first  thing  most  people  want  to  know  is  the  easiest 
road  to  their  desires.  You  wish  to  succeed  as  an 


THE  SELF-TAUGHT  ENGINEER.  17 

electrician — then  your  question,  and  it  is  a  very 
rational  one,  is,  How  little  is  necessary? 

Our  book  to  some  extent  tries  to  answer  this  query. 
Take  the  sections  one  by  one,  and  you  will  find 
that  in  each  the  endeavor  is  to  give  a  clue  to  the  least 
you  ought  to  know. 

In  colleges  all  over  the  land  young  men  are  studying 
for  the  profession,  and  a  severe  four  years'  course  is 
passed  as  preparation.  This  book  details  far  less  than, 
the  work  of  those  four  years,  so  the  somewhat  varied 
items  of  study  and  work  are  not  a  full  course.  The 
author's  hope  is  in  another  direction.  It  is  that,  if 
the  little  work  here  outlined  is  faithfully  done,  the 
little  study  faithfully  performed,  and  if  what  is  cata- 
logued here  is  absolutely  known,  the  reader  will 
be  prepared  to  enter  the  field  and  compete  for  the  top 
rungs  of  the  long  ladder,  which  it  may  take  a  life-time 
to  ascend. 

If  you  pick  out  just  what  suits  your  fancy — find  that 
chemistry  loses  variety  after  a  week  at  it  and  drop 
it ;  know  that  mathematics  will  not  suit  you  and  do 
not  drop  them  only  because  you  never  take  them 
up;  read  physics  superficially,  avoiding  all  formulae 
and  calculations — you  have  not  got  the  stuff  in  you 
to  succeed. 

When  through  with  this  course,  volts  and  amperes 
and  their  brethren  should  be  as  familiar  to  you  as 
quarts  and  pounds  are  to  the  grocer.  This  may 
be  brought  about  by  practice  on  calculations  of 


18  LEARNING  A  LITTLE  THOROUGHLY. 

circuits ;  Ohm's  law,  in  its  endless  modifications, 
giving  great  chances  for  work  in  this  direction. 
Energy,  work  (mechanical  as  well  as  physical  units), 
inertia,  force  should  be  so  ingrained  by  use  in  calcu- 
lations and  by  the  habit  of  referring  all  machinery 
motions  and  functions  to  them  as  to  be  a  part  of  your 
nature.  Your  references  to  them  should  be  almost 
instinctive. 

This  idea  should  be  carried  out  in  all  that  is  de- 
tailed here.  Little  enough  is  prescribed — so  little, 
that  its  only  hope  of  utility  is  that  the  very  short 
course  of  scientific  study  here  mapped  out  shall 
become  a  part  of  your  nature.  Take  this  course  and 
compare  it  with  any  college  course  and  see  how  little 
there  is  of  it — so  little,  that  it  may  be  a  subject  of 
just  criticism  were  one  to  maintain  that  an  electrician 
should  go  no  further.  This  is  not  to  be  maintained 
by  any  means.  But  let  a  young  man  by  his  own  ex- 
ertions go  thus  far,  let  him  become  self-educated  to 
this  extent,  and  he  will  not  be  content  to  arrest  his 
progress  when  on  the  border-land  of  science  only. 
He  will  want  to  go  further,  and  he  will  do  so.  Every 
step  of  such  progress  proves  the  true  nature  more 
than  a  year  in  college  on  the  king's  highway  to 
knowledge — to  knowledge  little  appreciated  because 
so  easily  gained. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  indicate  the  general  theory 
of  work.  If  one  will  carry  it  out  so  as  to  learn  a 
little  bit  very  perfectly  rather  than  a  great  quantity 


INDICATIONS  OF   CHARACTER.  19 

superficially,  a  habit  will  be  acquired  which  will  stand 
one  in  good  stead  through  life.  Restrain  ambition 
for  covering  ground.  If  you  will  begin  slowly  and 
thoroughly,  you  will  do  better  in  the  end. 

This  much  will  introduce  our  subject.  You  think 
of  entering  a  profession  created  within  a  comparatively 
few  years  upon  a  basis  of  pure  science  ;  one  in  which 
the  old-time  jealousy  between  practical  and  theo- 
retical science  is  happily  missing;  one  in  which  you 
will  have  to  compete  with  minds  as  good  and  better 
than  your  own,  and  far  better  equipped.  The  great 
object  in  life  is  to  acquire  contentment.  So  before 
embarking  in  the  competition  satisfy  yourself  that 
you  have  the  necessary  qualifications  to  be  an  en- 
gineer ;  study  your  past  proclivities  and  decide 
whether  the  farm,  the  store,  or  the  machine-shop 
is  not  after  all  a  safer  field  for  you  than  electrical 
engineering. 

Two  boys  live  in  a  country  village.  The  local 
surveyor  is  in  want  of  some  one  to  help  him  survey  a 
farm  or  a  lot.  He  will  ask  the  boys  which  will  help 
him.  One  offers,  with  signs  of  real  interest,  to 
assist.  The  other  finds  a  game  of  foot -ball  or  of  base- 
ball more  interesting.  Here  is  at  once  a  clue  as  to 
which  will  make  the  best  engineer.  Let  the  same 
two  boys  live  near  a  railroad.  One  will  know  the 
engines  by  their  numbers  and  will  know  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  different  ones.  A  new  engine  will  be 
an  object  of  the  greatest  interest  to  him.  He  will 


NOTICING  LITTLE  THINGS. 


note  the  peculiarities  of  the  tracks — how  some  are 
rusty  and  some  bright.  His  mind  will  work  upon  the 
interesting  question  of  why  a  travelled  rail  does  not 
rust  even  on  its  sides  where  the  wheels  never  touch 
it.  If  a  new  semaphore  is  put  in,  he  will  not  be 
satisfied  until  he  learns  its  exact  uses.  A  little  heap 
of  sand  by  the  rail-side  will  tell  him  that  an  engine  has 
had  trouble  in  starting,  and  that  the  sand-box  has  been 
opened  to  drop  sand  upon  the  rail.  He  will  examine 
the  sand  to  see  what  quality  it  is,  and  whether  it  has 
been  baked  to  give  it  bite.  Everything  is  to  be 
investigated  and  its  causes  determined.  The  other 
boy  will  have  a  soul  above  (or  below)  such  trivial 
things.  But  which  boy  would  you  select  to  make  an 
engineer  out  of  ? 

It  is  told  of  Agassiz  that  he  wished  to  select  an 
assistant  from  a  number  of  young  men.  Taking  them 
to  a  window  he  asked  them  one  by  one  to  tell  what 
was  there.  Some  noted  only  a  house  opposite,  but 
one  saw  a  house,  saw  that  it  was  made  of  brick  or 
of  stone,  described  the  material,  and  told  of  the 
general  environment  of  the  place.  The  good  observer 
was  selected  as  the  assistant.  The  rejected  appli- 
cants received  a  needed  lesson ;  they  learned  that  in 
Agassiz's  estimation  it  was  the  observation  of  little 
things  that  indicated  the  scientific  mind. 

The  moral  of  this  is  briefly  told  :  Use  your  eyes. 
There  is  a  multitude  of  things  to  be  seen,  if  you  will 
only  look.  The  great  things  in  any  given  line  may 


THE  ART   OF   OBSERVING.  21 

have  been  studied  and  worked  out,  but  there  always 
remain  a  multitude  of  little  things  to  be  investigated. 
Study  to  let  none  of  them  escape  you. 

The  fire-fly,  the  glow-worm,  the  curculio  of  the 
West  Indies  are  all  small  things.  Yet  on  them  the 
electrical  engineer  looks  with  envy  and  interest.  He 
envies  them  their  power  of  producing  waves  of 
almost  pure  light  energy;  he  envies  them  their  enor- 
mous efficiency  as  light-producers.  They  interest  him 
because  they  give  some  faint  suggestion  and  some 
very  definite  hope  that  the  time  may  come  when  he 
will  be  able  to  light  houses  at  a  less  reckless  expend- 
iture than  that  of  two  and  a"  half  or  three  watts  to  a 
candle-power. 

A  man  who  knows  little  hates  to  be  forced  to  dis- 
play his  ignorance  by  being  asked  questions,  while 
he  who  knows  is  always  willing  to  respond  to  inquiries. 
Yet  just  in  proportion  to  his  knowledge,  in  proportion 
to  the  exact  training  which  his  mind  has  received, 
will  he  distinguish  between  sensible  and  idle  questions. 
The  mind  of  scientific  bent  wants  to  know  every- 
thing,, and  all  things  cannot  be  ascertained  by 
observation  only,  Questions  must  be  asked,  but  of 
whom  ?  Here  again  the  natural  qualifications  will 
be  shown.  The  born  student  will  first  propound 
his  questions  to  his  books  or  to  those  of  some 
library,  and  if  books  do  not  tell  him,  he  will  not  rest 
until  he  finds  out  in  some  way  his  point.  His  ques- 
tions will  be  sensible  ones — his  own  attempts  to  find 


22         ASKING  AND  ANSWERING  QUESTIONS. 

out  for  himself  will  insure  this.  He  may  ask  them 
of  one  who  knows  ;  he  may  write  to  some  journal 
which  answers  queries.  Ignorance  should  cause 
restlessness  until  the  desired  information  is  ob- 
tained. 

The  reciprocal  of  what  is  outlined  above  is  the 
willingness  to  impart  our  knowledge.  If  there  is 
any  one  thing  which  shows  what  is  worse  than  a 
limited  intellect,  it  is  the  unwillingness  to  tell  the 
little  we  do  know  in  the  way  of  science  to  those  less 
informed.  In  this  direction  the  mind  should  open 
for  every  one.  Nowhere  is  candor  more  essential 
than  in  the  field  of  science.  In  later  life  one  may 
find  out  things  which  would  be  of  value  to  profes- 
sional men  if  published  or  made  known.  Then  it  is 
a  duty  to  communicate  them.  But  even  in  youth, 
the  one  who  naturally  helps  along  other  inquirers 
less  advanced  than  himself  shows  the  true  scien- 
tific bias.  Conceal  nothing  in  science.  Secretive- 
ness  in  those  matters  marks  a  one-sided  character 
whose  future  prosperity  may  be  doubted.  To-day 
Cavendish  is  regarded  as  almost  a  criminal,  because 
he  concealed  the  valuable  results  of  his  researches  in 
electricity.  A  miser  in  science  is  a  sad  anomaly. 

It  is  definitely  certain  that  we  all  have  our  indi- 
vidual characteristics.  Some  excellent  minds  would 
be  utterly  miserable  in  the  engineering  field,  but 
there  is  no  greater  error  than  the  falling  into  one- 
sidedness  of  character.  An  engineer  should  be  an 


ONE-SIDEDNESS  AND   OPENNESS.  23 

"all-round  man."  He  has  to  deal  with  human  na- 
ture and  with  the  luminiferous  ether  at  one  and  the 
same  time.  If  from  the  beginning  a  young  man 
shuts  himself  up  within  himself,  never  opens  his  soul 
to  any  one,  and  works  away  in  secrecy,  he  will  ruin 
his  chances  of  success,  for  a  one-sided  man  is  the 
last  one  who  should  adopt  the  profession  of  which 
we  are  speaking. 

The  writer  has  now  in  mind  a  young  man  who  de- 
veloped early  in  life  a  great  talent  for  mechanics. 
His  talent  was  fostered  by  his  family — very  prop- 
erly, one  would  suppose.  But  with  it  was  an  accom- 
paniment all  too  frequent — a  desire  to  work  alone, 
and  a  repugnance  to  companionship  in  his  pursuits. 
This  should  have  been  combated  but  was  not. 
The  young  man  has  become  a  recluse,  only  at  home 
in  his  machine-shop,  doing  nothing  for  humanity, 
unknown  to  the  world,  a  victim  to  one-sidedness. 
Another  instance  is  within  the  writer's  knowledge. 
It  concerns  again  a  born  mechanic,  a  man  who  can 
do  anything  with  tools,  and  who  is  accomplished  in 
other  ways.  But  him,  too,  a  solitary  life  and  one- 
sidedness  have  selected  as  a  victim.  He  is  devoted 
to  his  work,  reads  little,  and  does  not  do  anything 
like  what  he  should  with  the  natural  gifts  which  he 
possesses.  It  is  evident  that  in  both  these  cases 
rigorous  measures  should  have  been  taken  early  in 
life,  and  both  men  should  have  been  made  to  study 
literature,  languages,  or  anything  that  would  break 


24  COMPREHENSIVENESS. 

up  their  monotony  of  thought.  It  really  seems  that 
too  great  an  aptitude  for  mechanics  is  as  hurtful  as 
too  little. 

For  an  engineer  is  concerned  with  the  larger 
things  of  science.  His  business  is  to  see  that  an 
electric  plant  is  properly  put  up.  A  badly  laced 
belt  will  give  endless  trouble.  Buckled  or  warped 
grate-bars  make  proper  firing  much  more  difficult. 
He  must  have  an  eye  for  all  these  things.  He  may 
invent  better  grate-bars,  he  may  lead  his  belt-lacing 
in  a  new  and  original  way,  but  this  does  not  say 
that  he  must  personally  spend  his  time  in  a  machine- 
shop.  His  business  is  to  be  the  Napoleon  of  his 
works  or  station — he  must  see  that  others  do  their 
work,  and  must  understand  each  man's  work,  but  he 
must  not  undertake  to  do  it  for  them.  Hence  a 
great  aptitude  for  lathe-work  and  operative  me- 
chanics must  be  balanced  by  a  broadening  of  the 
mind  and  by  the  power  of  taking  a  comprehensive 
view  of  things.  The  examples  just  cited  seem  to 
have  lacked  this  comprehensiveness.  A  man  who 
can  work  to  perfection  on  a  hand-lathe — who  can 
make  a  small  and  inadequate  machine-lathe  do  work 
it  was  not  made  for — who  can  file  up  a  true  prism — 
may  be  proud  of  his  skill,  but  he  has  only  gone 
half-way  to  the  goal  of  engineering. 

A  quality  or  characteristic  to  be  avoided  is  sensi- 
tiveness. Sometimes,  unfortunately,  you  may  feel 
obliged  to  conceal  your  ignorance,  and  in  general  to 


THE  NEW  ORDER  OF  THINGS.  25 

be  so  sensitive  about  showing  it  as  to  be  unwilling 
to  ask  your  way  out  of  it  is  bad  enough.  But  far 
worse  than  this  is  it  when  it  allies  itself  with  vanity. 
When  you  are  asked  something  which  you  do  not 
know  say,  "  I  will  look  it  up,"  if  you  are  capable  of 
doing  so  ;  if  not,  say,  "  I  do  not  know,"  and  be  done 
with  it,  but  do  not  weary  the  soul  of  your  inter- 
rogator by  trying  to  conceal  your  ignorance  and 
evading  the  question. 

At  the  present  time,  and  the  writer  has  definite 
knowledge  of  what  he  is  saying,  young  men  in  all 
parts  of  the  country  are  constructing  electrical  appa- 
ratus. It  is  not  saying  too  much  to  assert  that  a 
corps  of  electrical  engineers,  a  sort  of  militia  of  the 
science,  are  drilling  on  all  sides  of  us.  In  old  times 
a  young  man  given  to  such  experimenting  would  ask 
the  wildest  questions  about  electrical  things,  but 
recently  a  very  marked  change  has  come.  Definite 
information  is  now  wanted.  A  dynamo  is  to  be 
built  for  given  amperage  and  voltage,  and  any  ques- 
tions about  it  refer  to  definite  figures.  In  old  times 
the  question  would  be,  how  to  build  a  dynamo  for 
experimental  purposes — as  if  that  meant  anything. 
Now  the  questions  are,  how  to  wind  it  for  a  given 
potential,  and  what  its  amperage  will  be. 

Good  work  is  beiffg  done.  Many  of  the  young 
men  thus  occupied  are  unable  to  go  to  college,  and 
are,  of  course,  at  a  disadvantage,  if  they  adopt  elec- 
trical engineering  as  a  profession.  But  they  have  at 


26  IDLENESS. 


least  the  satisfaction  of  feeling  that  the  profession  is 
constantly  widening,  that  there  will  be  more  and 
more  positions,  and  that  any  success  which  they  do 
attain  will  be  deserved.  It  is  for  such  young  men 
that  one's  interest  is  most  excited,  for  they  will  in 
times  to  come  be  the  backbone  of  the  profession,  if 
they  work  up  from  the  ranks. 

Ruskin  holds  that  there  are  two  faults  which  are 
fatal  to  the  character — idleness  and  cruelty.  What 
we  have  to  say  here  need  not  touch  on  the  evils  of 
cruelty.  The  highest  aims  of  science  are  beneficent, 
and  electricity  is  employed  to  alleviate  the  troubles 
of  life.  But  idleness — that  is  the  deadly  sin  of  the 
professions. 

Idleness  commits  all  crimes — it  murders,  steals 
and  lies.  The  idle  electrician,  not  heeding  details  of 
his  work,  is  the  cause  of  a  leak  in  a  distribution 
plant,  and  a  man  is  shocked  to  death,  which  is  mur- 
der. It  steals.  An  engineer  is  too  idle  to  calculate 
out  dimensions  of  everything  in  an  electric  plant  ;  too 
small  a  boiler  is  bought,  which  has  to  be  replaced  at 
heavy  expense  by  another.  The  loss  to  the  electric 
works'  owners  represents  the  steal.  It  lies.  A  dy- 
namo is  to  be  calculated.  A  rough  instead  of  an 
accurate  computation  is  made,  and  the  dynamo  falls 
short.  The  lie  here  is  measured  in  deficiency  of 
volts  or  of  amperes.  Its  criminality  is  measured  by 
the  monetary  loss  incurred. 

Every  bit    of   careless  measurement  executed    in 


PERSEVERANCE   IN  WORK.  27 

the  laboratory,  considered  in  this  light,  involves  a  lie 
and  a  probable  theft. 

The  one  bit  of  ethics  that  applies  to  professional 
life  is  really  all  of  ethics — it  is  conscientiousness. 
Be  conscientious.  Do  not  be  guided  in  your  work 
by  the  motive  of  honesty  alone.  Go  a  step  beyond 
this  and  be  more  than  honest — be  the  superlative  of 
honest,  be  honorable.  Let  your  conscience  give 
you  a  diploma  of  self-approval  that  will  outweigh 
any  college  degree. 

Another  quality  is  to  be  looked  for — persistence. 
It  is  one  thing  to  read  in  a  book  short  directions 
for  making  an  induction  coil,  but  try  it.  Wind 
your  secondary  out  of  No.  36  wire,  which  breaks 
if  you  look  at  it ;  keep  shellacking  it  and  testing  its 
continuity  layer  by  layer,  and,  when  done,  see  if 
energy  and  interest  enough  is  left  to  finish  the  coil. 
You  make  special  arrangements  at  your  school  to 
study  chemistry  or  physics.  A  week  or  a  month  suf- 
fices to  make  you  weary  of  your  task.  Does  this 
indicate  a  suitable  character  to  build  an  engi- 
neer on  ? 

It  is  well  that  there  is  some  basis  for  judging  of 
character  and  of  adaptability  for  a  professional  life, 
for  it  is  sad  to  see  a  young  man  without  taste  for  the 
profession  trying  to  struggle  along  in  company  not 
suited  to  him.  Indolence,  want  of  persistence, 
natural  selection  of  the  easy  and  rejection  of  the  dif- 
ficult things  encountered  in  study  indicate  qualities 
which  are  fatal. 


FITNESS  TO  BEGIN  WORK. 


Do  not  then  attempt  to  enter  ranks  captained  by 
such  men  as  Sir  William  Thomson,  Elihu  Thomp- 
son, Brush  and  Tesla,  without  letting  the  dignity  of 
the  company  be  reflected  from  yourself.  If  not  pa- 
tient and  persevering,  if  not  naturally  inclined 
towards  mathematics,  do  not  try  to  become  a  mem- 
ber of  the  profession.  A  college  training  to  some 
extent  compensates  even  for  the  want  of  natural 
aptitude, — but  you  will  have  to  compete  with  men  of 
high  natural  aptitude  supplemented  by  the  best 
college  education. 

This  much  will  suffice  for  the  general  aspect  of 
the  subject.  If  a  young  man  is  a  natural  observer 
of  everything,  if  he  is  of  open  nature,  willing  to 
impart  knowledge  as  well  as  to  receive  it,  and  of 
mechanical  and  mathematical  tastes,  he  may  feel 
fitted  to  begin  work  in  the  profession  of  electrician. 
He  must  be  industrious  and  without  dread  of  work 
It  is  easy  to  profess  to  be  so,  but  it  is  not  so  easy  to 
answer  to  expectations  in  this  regard.  The  only 
way  to  know  whether  a  man  is  industrious  or  not  is 
to  try  him,  and  there  is  nothing  better  than  mathe- 
matics as  a  test-object.  In  modern  science  math- 
ematics are  everything,  and  reasonable  familiarity 
with  them  is  essential. 

This  gives  a  reason  for  plunging  at  once  into  our 
subject  and  speaking  of  mathematics  and  of  their 
place  in  the  course  of  study  to  be  followed. 


CHAPTER    II. 

MATHEMATICS. 

ARITHMETIC PRACTICE    AFFORDED     IN    MECHANICS 

POWERS  OF  TEN  AND  FRACTIONAL  EXPONENTS 
— LOGARITHMS — ALGEBRA GEOMETRY TRIGO- 
NOMETRY  MENSURATION OHM'S  LAW MATHE- 
MATICS OF  CHEMISTRY ANALYTICAL  GEOMETRY 

CALCULUS — CONCLUSION. 

What  advice  can  be  given  about  the  dreaded 
mathematics  ?  Edison,  working  up  from  a  train-boy 
to  his  present  position,  claims  to  be  no  mathemati- 
cian. You  will  do  well  enough  if  you  get  as  high  as 
he  is, — so  your  first  care  may  be  to  follow  his 
example  in  one  respect  and  let  mathematics 
alone.  Reparation  will  follow  such  a  course, 
for  you  certainly  will  not  follow  his  exam- 
ple in  anything  else  if  you  start  with  such 
principles.  Do  you  not  suppose  that  Faraday  en- 
vied J.  Clerk  Maxwell  when  he  went  to  him  for 
mathematics  to  elucidate  his  discoveries  ?  Read 
Maxwell's  life  and  realize  that  he  laid  the  mathe- 
matical basis  of  much  of  modern  electricity,  and  see  if 
you  are  not  cured  of  your  distaste  for  mathematics. 


30  ARITHMETIC  AND  ALGEBRA. 

Dislike  for  mathematics,  like  specialized  dislikes  in 
general,  is  usually  a  form  of  laziness. 

The  opening  question  given  above  is  easily  an- 
swered :  the  advice  to  be  given  is  to  study  mathe- 
matics or  drop  electricity.  The  further  you  go  in 
mathematics,  the  better,  but  here  also  go  slowly. 

Arithmetic  you  say  you  know.  Well,  before  going 
further,  review  your  old  school  books  and  get  your 
arithmetic  once  more  at  your  fingers'  ends.  Then 
start  algebra.  If  you  think  it  too  hard,  try  as  an  ex- 
periment to  add  a,  b  and  c  together  by  algebra,  and 
7,  8  and  9  together  by  arithmetic,  and  see  whether 
algebra  is  not  sometimes  easier  than  its  sister 
science.  In  algebra  go  through  simple  equations 
before  you  take  up  physics. 

Henceforward  you  will  have  practice  in  arith- 
metic and  algebra  in  your  other  studies.  In  physics 
the  change  from  one  thermometric  scale  to  another, 
problems  in  falling  bodies,  problems  in  inertia,  me- 
chanical powers  and  the  like  will  exercise  you  in 
arithmetic  and  in  elementary  algebra. 

There  will  be  a  reciprocation.  The  physics  or 
mechanics  you  are  studying  will  take  on  a  new  mean- 
ing, and  at  the  same  time  your  familiarity  with  your 
mathematics  will  increase. 

Perhaps  the  reader  has  gone  through  calculus,  and 
deems  this  very  elementary.  If  our  book  throughout 
can  but  appear  equally  simple,  its  end  will  have  been 
achieved.  And  many  a  college  graduate,  who  has 


POWERS  OF  TEN.  31 

passed  in  calculus,  would  fail  sadly  in  deducing  the 
law  of  falling  bodies,  though  only  simple  arith- 
metic is  involved  in  it.  So  do  not  criticise  this  book 
for  not  going  far  enough,  exalted  reader  ;  but  feeling 
that  you  have  gone  far  beyond  us  in  mathematics, 
pick  out  half  a  dozen  elementary  propositions  in 
physics  and  see  if  you  can  prove  them. 

To  return  to  our  student  of  arithmetic  and  ele- 
mentary algebra.  He  will  note  two  peculiarities  as 
he  advances  into  electrical  physics,  and  as  he  takes 
up  the  theory  of  dimensions  of  physical  units. 

One  of  these  is  the  use  of  powers  often.  Instead 
of  saying  that  a  volt  is  100,000,000  electro  magnetic 
units  in  value,  we  say  that  it  is  108  such  units,  and 
instead  of  calling  v,  the  velocity  of  propagation  of 
ether  waves,  30,000,000,000  cm.,  we  may  express  it  in 
powers  of  ten,  as  being  3xl010  cm.,  and  v*  may  be 
expressed  in  full  as  900,000,000,000,000,000,000  cm., 
or  in  powers  of  ten,  as  9xlOso  cm.  The  more 
compact  method  is  certainly  in  every  way  su- 
perior, and  you  must  learn  how  to  calculate  in  pow- 
ers of  ten.  Five  minutes'  study  tells  you  how  to  do 
it — perhaps  five  hours  or  five  months  will  be  re- 
quired to  enable  you  to  use  without  slip  the  results 
of  the  five  minutes'  study.  So  practice  hard  upon 
powers  of  ten,  and  never  let  a  calculation  involving 
them  pass  without  doing  it  over  yourself.* 

The  other  peculiarity  is  used  in  dimensions.     It  is 

*See  "Arithmetic  of  Electricity,"  page  118. 


3J  FRACTIONAL  EXPONENTS. 

the  use  of  fractional  exponents.  This  is  very  simple 
— but  try  how  many  of  your  acquaintances  can  tell 
you  precisely  what  is  meant  by  the  exponent  £ 
Taking  the  expression  II*,  see  if  any  of  them  can 
reduce  it  to  its  true  value.  You  will  discern  an 
analogy  with  powers  of  ten,  in  the  fact  that  the 
utility  of  both  methods  of  calculation  is  greatest  in 
operations  of  multiplication  and  division  of  identical 
symbols  or  of  numbers  in  general.  So  as  regards 
operations  with  fractional  exponents  you  must 
learn  how  to  multiply  and  divide  any  numbers  or  any 
identical  symbols  followed  by  fractional  exponents 
Multiplication  is  done  by  adding  the  exponents,  as 
if  they  were  common  fractions,  reducing  the  sum 
to  the  lowest  terms,  and  applying  the  new  exponent  to 
the  original  symbol.  Thus  M^xM^  gives  MS,  or 
M2.  For  division  you  subtract  in  like  manner  the 
exponent  of  the  divisor  from  that  of  the  dividend. 
Nothing  could  be  simpler,  but  practice  it  whenever 
it  occurs,  and  see  if  you  can  deduce  by  simple  inspec- 
tion the  dimensions  L  T  of  resistance  from  poten- 
tial difference  M?  L*/TS  and  current  intensity 
M*  Ls/T,  by  dividing  one  by  the  other. 

Logarithms  should  next  be  taken  up,  and  if  you 
can  persuade  yourself  to  do  it,  study  their  theory  in 
your  algebra.  But  learn  well  how  to  use  them,  for 
after  all  they  are  an  instrument  for  your  purposes — 
their  theory  does  not  immediately  concern  you. 
Make  a  point  of  using  them  frequently.  If  you  do 


LOGARITHMS— GEOMETRY. 


not  think  them  a  means  of  facilitating  calculation, 
if  they  seem  to  you  merely  an  additional  load,  try 
to  extract  the  fifth  root  of  a  number  without  using 
logarithms,  and  then  in  a  couple  of  minutes  do  it  by 
logarithms,  and  see  which  is  the  easier. 

Learn  thoroughly  how  to  determine  the  charac- 
teristics of  your  logarithms.  Do  not  leave  them  for 
a  subject  of  guess  work,  or  entire  omission,  but 
always  put  them  in,  whether  needed  or  not.  It  is  a 
very  good  habit  to  fall  into. 

Now  you  can  go  on  in  algebra  as  far  as  you  choose 
— the  further,  the  better.  Skip  nothing.  The  appar- 
ently or  probably  useless  portions  worked  out  will 
give  you  the  best  possible  practice.  When  reason- 
ably familiar  with  equations  and  logarithms,  you  have 
got  your  tools  for  attacking  much  of  your  subject. 

Even  in  the  beginning  of  algebra  there  is  matter 
that  is  not  applicable  directly  to  your  work.  Such 
are  the  least  common  multiple  and  the  greatest  com- 
mon divisor.  It  is  better  not  to  skip  them.  It  is  not 
merely  rules  of  algebra  that  are  to  be  learned,  but 
familiarity  with  its  operations  is  necessary,  and  this 
is  best  acquired  by  taking  in  everything  as  you  pro- 
gress in  its  study. 

Of  geometry  a  great  deal  is  not  directly  useful. 
Indeed  geometry,  as  far  as  the  proofs  of  propositions 
are  concerned,  has  direct  application  in  very  little 
work  of  any  kind.  It  tells  the  why  and  wherefore  of 
things,  and  gives  the  proofs  of  certain  propositions  ; 


34  TRIGONOMETRY  AND  MENSURATION. 

but  what  is  really  of  most  practical  use  is  the  propo- 
sition itself — not  the  proof  of  it.  Thus  you  may 
very  contentedly  go  on  calculating  the  area  of  trian- 
gles and  the  volume  of  pyramids,  without  troubling 
yourself  about  the  proof  of  the  rules  you  use,  which 
proofs  you  may  find  in  plane  and  solid  geometry 
respectively. 

There  is  one  proposition  you  should  be  very  fa- 
miliar with  and  which  you  should  put  to  frequent 
use  by  way  of  practice.  This  is  the  rule  of  the 
square  of  the  hypothenuse — the  famous  pans  asi- 
norum,  or  "bridge  of  asses."  The  areas  of  triangles 
and  similar  things  come  under  practical  geometry,  or, 
more  strictly  speaking,  under  mensuration,  which 
you  should  also  know. 

Trigonometry  must  be  studied  so  as  to  understand 
the  functions  of  an  arc,  the  sine,  cosine  and  others. 
It  is  not  necessary  for  the  solution  of  triangles  to  be 
learned,  but  the  functions  must  be  thoroughly  mas- 
tered. This  will  be  a  very  small  affair.  But  it 
would  be  excellent  practice  to  solve  a  few  triangles, 
just  to  get  practice  in  logarithms  and  logarithmic 
functions.  How  to  express  one  function  in  terms  of 
the  others  and  of  the  radius  must  be  worked  up, 
which  really  amounts  to  little  more  than  the  solution 
of  right-angled  triangles. 

Mensuration  must  be  learned,  and  as  applied  to 
ordinary  cases  it  is  very  simple.  It  will  be  very  ad- 
vantageous to  learn  by  heart  a  dozen  good  rules, 


GENERAL  PRACTICE.  35 

such  as  those  giving  the  area  of  a  circle,  the  super- 
ficies of  a  sphere,  the  volume  of  the  same,  the 
volume  of  a  cylinder  and  the  like.  Then  come  the 
most  convenient  ratios  of  mensuration,  such  as  con- 
tained in  the  statement  that  symmetrical  surfaces 
.vary  in  area  as  the  squares  of  their  similar  linear 
parts  or  functions.  There  are  two  or  three  of  these 
which  should  be  thoroughly  learned  and  practiced 
upon. 

There  is  in  electricity  proper  one  little  bit  of 
mathematics  which  should  be  treated  here  specially. 
It  is  a  simple  algebraic  formula  of  only  three  quan- 
tities, but  the  changes  are  rung  on  it  ad  infinitum. 
This  is  Ohm's  law.  It  has  never  been  deduced,  and 
is  based  entirely  on  experimental  proof.  It  should 
be  practiced  with  in  all  ways.  Three  principal 
forms  can  be  given  it,  and  it  can  also  be  expressed  by 
proportions  of  several  kinds,  as  thus,  the  current 
varies  directly  with  the  electro-motive  force  and  in- 
directly with  the  resistance.  This  embodies  two 
proportions.  Practice  with  Ohm's  law  should  in- 
clude operations  with  such  proportional  or  ratio 
statements  of  it  as  the  one  given  above. 

You  may  also  work  up  the  mathematics  of  chem- 
istry, mention  of  which  is  made  under  chemistry. 
But  for  the  electrician  it  is  better  to  treat  chemistry 
as  a  whole,  and  to  keep  its  mathematics  with  itself, 
and  not  take  them  up  separately.  The  study  of  an- 
alytical geometry,  of  calculus  and  of  the  higher 


36  ANALYTICAL  GEOMETRY. 

mathematics  in  general  may  be  postponed.  They 
should  be  a  part  of  one's  equipment,  but  the  practical, 
self-educated  man  will  have  to  omit  any  ex- 
haustive study  of  them  in  his  earlier  work,  unless  he 
has  a  very  strong  bent  towards  the  exact  sciences. 
Of  course  the  college  graduate  will  have  gone 
through  them,  but  even  he,  in  many  cases,  will  have 
but  an  imperfect  acquaintance  with  calculus. 

But  analytical  geometry  must  be  attacked  to  a 
certain  extent,  comparable  to  the  case  of  trigonome- 
try as  we  have  cited  it.  Just  as  the  functions  of  an 
arc  must  be  understood,  so  must  the  method  of  loca- 
ting points  in  analytical  geometry  be  understood. 
For  every  characteristic  curve,  and  there  are  legions 
of  them,  of  many  types,  from  the  curves  of  dynamos 
to  the  curves  on  the  steam-engine  indicator  card, 
every  such  curve  is  drawn  subject  to  the  laws  of  de- 
scriptive geometry.  The  axes  of  ordinates  and  ab- 
scisses are  the  reference  lines.  Usually  rectangular 
co-ordinates  are  used,  but  in  angular  motion  polar 
co-ordinates  may  come  into  use,  so  something  should 
be  known  of  them. 

The  above  outline  is  open  to  severe  criticism  as 
giving  a  very  meagre  allowance  of  mathematics. 
Yet  if  the  amount  detailed  is  learned  thoroughly,  the 
electrician  will  do  very  well  as  far  as  ordinary  work 
is  concerned.  Mathematics  are  something  like  his- 
tory— they  cannot  be  learned  from  epitomes  or 
abridgments.  So  it  would  be  better  for  the  aspir- 


LEARNING   A  LITTLE  THOROUGHLY.  37 

ant  to  go  much  further  than  we  have  indicated — to 
go  through  the  whole  of  a  text-book  on  algebra,  and 
to  work  up  analytical  geometry  and  calculus.  It 
may  be  feared  that  this  recommendation  will  bear 
but  little  fruit. 

Edison,  with  his  avowed  ignorance  of  mathematics, 
Faraday  applying  to  Clerk  Maxwell  to  work  up  the 
mathematics  of  a  subject  for  him, — such  examples  as 
these  may  comfort  one.  But  there  are  very  few  of 
us  who  do  not  feel  a  longing  for  greater  advances  in 
the  science,  and  no  failing  is  more  felt  than  one's 
deficiency  in  mathematics.  So  the  student  should 
do  his  best  to  get  beyond  the  very  elementary 
schedule  given  in  these  pages. 


CHAPTER  III. 
PHYSICS. 

HEAT    AND   LIGHT EXAMPLES   OF   APPLICATION    OF 

PHYSICS BAD    PRACTICES  IN  DISTRIBUTION   OF 

LIGHT — REFLECTION  OF  WASTED  RAYS ECONO- 
MY  OF   THE    INCANDESCENT   LAMP MECHANICS 

—  VALUE     OF     DEFINITIONS ENERGY THEORY 

OF     DIMENSIONS METHODS     OF     STUDY EXPERI- 
MENTING  PHYSICS    WITHOUT    APPARATUS. 

The  physics  of  the  present  day  differs  from  that  of 
the  last  generation,  as  it  has  taken  a  more  precise 
aspect,  especially  in  its  divisions,  and  has  become 
of  less  general  aspect.  From  the  practical  point  of 
view  it  is  not  necessary  for  the  electrician  to  study 
physics  any  more  deeply  than  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
his  natural  inclinations  would  lead  him  to.  But  it 
would  seem  absurd  for  an  engineer  dealing  with 
heat  and  light  to  know  the  physics  of  these  two 
branches  only  and  to  be  ignorant  of  the  physics  of 
sound.  So  we  will  assume  that  a  good  manual  of 
physics  will  be  read  from  beginning  to  end  by  our 
student.  Of  special  importance  he  should  re-read  and 
study  light  and  heat,  for  much  of  his  future  work 
may  involve  the  utilization  of  heat  energy  and  the 


DISTRIBUTION   OF  LIGHT. 


dispensing  of  light  energy.  He  should  know  how  to 
conduct  photometric  observations,  and  understand 
the  principles  so  well  as  to  be  able  to  improvise  a 
shadow  photometer  from  a  sheet  of  paper  and  a 
ruler  or  walking-stick. 

As  he  will  be  concerned  with  the  economical  sup- 
ply of  light,  he  should  know  something  of  the  relative 
transparency  of  glass.  After  expending  many  watts 
of  energy  on  an  arc  lamp  or  fifty  watts  on  an  incan- 
descent lamp,  let  his  studies  in  this  direction  teach 
him  the  absurdity,  except  for  special  purposes  of 
using  an  opaline  globe  or  a  frosted  bulb,  involving  a 
loss  of  fifty  to  eighty  per  cent,  of  his  energy. 

When  the  arc  light  was  first  introduced,  one  of  the 
sapient  ways  of  producing  an  approximation  to 
evenness  of  light  consisted  in  placing  the  lamps 
high  in  air,  250  feet  perhaps  above  the  earth's  sur- 
face. The  student  from  his  physics  can  learn  how 
enormous  was  the  waste  of  light  in  this  case,  the 
intensity  of  the  illumination  varying  inversely  with 
the  square  of  the  distance.  He  will  see  the  impor- 
tance on  account  of  the  same  law  of  the  inverse 
squares  of  distributing  arc  lamps  evenly  and  of  not 
putting  them  in  pairs  or  in  groups.  He  will  find  at- 
tempts made  to  save  the  light  which  is  radiated  sky- 
wards, reflectors  being  used  to  reflect  it  back  to  the 
earth.  He  will  from  his  physics  learn  how  effica- 
cious this  plan  is  in  each  case.  A  white-painted  sur- 
face will  be  found  to  be  of  little  use  ;  possibly  he 


40  PHYSICS  OF  HEAT. 


may  have  a  chance  to  try  some  better  materials,  such 
as  totally  reflecting  prisms. 

It  is  evident  that  knowledge  of  light  may  be  very 
useful,  and  it  is  also  evident  that  examples  for  criti- 
cism may  be  very  easily  found. 

Measure  the  filament  of  an  incandescent  lamp  and 
multiply  it  by  ten  ;  this  will  give  you  say  six  inches  of 
filament.  Does  it  not  give  one  a  sort  of  shock  to 
realize  that  an  entire  horse-power  is  used  up  in  keep- 
ing this  little  bit  of  material  at  a  white  heat  ?  Think 
what  it  would  cost  to  forge  a  horseshoe  under  simi- 
lar economy.  Is  there  not  room  for  some  brilliant 
genius  to  abolish  with  one  stroke  of  invention  and 
research  the  whole  miserable  instrumentality  of  in- 
candescent lamps?  Luminescence  and  other  phases 
of  the  physics  of  light  may  give  some  clue  to  this. 

You  may  yet  be  called  upon  to  use  and  to  supply 
heat  energy  as  such.  Dynamos  are  driven  by  some 
kind  of  heat  engines.  Our  present  sources  of  light, 
unfortunately,  are  simply  hot  solid  matter.  The 
working  electrician  is  therefore  very  much  con- 
cerned with  the  utilization  of  heat  energy.  He 
should  understand  its  laws,  the  relation  between  heat 
and  light,  and  between  luminescence  and  incan- 
descence, radiation,  convection  and  conduction.  The 
heating  of  a  conductor  by  a  current,  electric 
welding,  and  many  other  engineering  topics  must  be 
studied  in  the  light  of  the  physics  of  heat. 

As  to  the  other  branches,  they  may  be  treated  as 
objects  of  reading  rather  than  of  study. 


MECHANICS.  41 


Mechanics,  often  taken  as  a  division  of  physics,  is 
of  direct  importance.  The  conservation  of  energies, 
the  relation  of  force  to  energy,  the  object  of  ex- 
pressing energy  in  foot-pounds,  why  a  unit  essentially 
compound,  such  as  pounds,  is  taken  as  a  unit  of 
force,  which  latter  is  a  simple  entity,  the  change  of 
potential  energy  into  kinetic  energy,  the  change  of 
one  kind  of  potential  energy  into  another,  the  doing 
of  work  by  part  of  these  changes  and  its  absorbtion 
by  the  reciprocal  parts,  the  apparent  unreality  of 
work.thus  defined, — all  these  things  are  in  mechanics. 
No  one  is  more  constantly  referring  to  work  and 
energy  than  the  electrician.  Mechanics  is  a 
necessity  for  him. 

It  would  even  be  well  for  him  to  write  out  different 
definitions  of  force,  work  and  energy,  and  to  learn  by 
heart  the  best  and  most  satisfactory  ones  he  can  find, 
so  that  without  thinking  he  can  give  out  the  defi- 
nitions. In  any  science  it  is  excellent  to  have  step- 
ping-stones, or  points  of  departure  of  fixed  nature, 
and  such  could  be  given  by  the  definitions  above 
suggested.  You  may  easily  add  more  to  them. 

You  will  nowhere  have  a  better  chance  to  learn  the 
value  of  a  good  definition,  and  also  its  rarity,  than  in 
physics  and  mechanics. 

Take  the  case  of  a  company  selling  light  by  the 
lamp-hour.  Calculate  how  such  a  company  would  be 
affected  by  the  introduction  of  a  low  resistance  motor 


42  MECHANICS  OF   ELECTRICITY. 

in  circuit  with  a  number  of  lamps.  Mechanics,  giv- 
ing the  relations  of  energies,  gives  the  basis  for  the 
solution.  How  the  introduction  of  resistance  coils 
may  save  a  battery  from  running  down  and  at  the 
same  time  may  waste  energy,  how  every  foot  of  a 
conductor  is  a  seat  of  energy,  how  the  energy  in 
each  foot  of  the  conductor  may  be  ascertained,  the 
waste  of  energy  incident  to  the  necessary  use  of  a 
resistance  in  circuit  with  a  constant  potential  arc 
lamp, — all  such  topics  relate  to  the  important  doc- 
trine of  the  conservation  of  energy,  and,  while  they 
are  electrical  in  aspect,  are  actually  questions  of  me- 
chanics. 

You  should  learn  mechanics  thoroughly,  and  it 
is  better  in  mechanics  especially  to  learn  a  little 
very  well,  rather  than  to  get  a  mere  reading  acquaint- 
ance with  a  great  deal.  .  The  learning  a  little  thor- 
oughly is  not  so  simple  as  it  may  seem.  You  should 
learn  to  work  with  fynuz,  as  with  a  most  familiar 
character.  The  little  well  learned  will  be  the  incen- 
tive to  more  reading,  and  the  foundation  it  gives  will 
make  such  reading  far  more  profitable  than  it  would 
otherwise  be. 

You  may  have  a  taste  for  mathematics,  which  ex- 
pression often  indicates  that  in  reality  the  posses- 
sor of  such  alleged  taste  is  not  too  lazy  to  study.  If 
you  have  this  quality,  whether  it  takes  the  form  of 
taste  or  of  industry,  the  theory  of  dimensions  will 
greatly  help  you  in  studying  mechanics.  By  the  use 


INDUCTIVE  PHYSICS.  43 

of  the  wonderfully  ingenious  theory  of  dimensions 
of  physical  quantities  you  can  trace  the  relationship 
of  all  the  units  to  each  other. 

You  will  find  the  mathematical  treatment  now  un- 
derlying all  physics,  and  dimensions  you  will  see  used 
perhaps  even  more  in  the  physics  of  electricity  than 
in  mechanics  proper.  In  other  branches  of  the 
science  they  are  less  used  than  in  these  two. 

We  have  used  the  term  physics  of  electricity,  indi- 
cating thereby  the  treatment  of  its  theory  as  a  whole 
without  restriction  to  one  part  of  the  science.  Most 
books  on  electricity  treat  some  specific  branch. 
This  remark  may  serve  to  introduce  a  suggestion 
that  the  manuals  of  physics  give  a  treatment  of  the 
subject  that  will  be  of  value  in  presenting  a  unitary 
view  of  the  subject  as  a  whole.  Electricity,  as 
treated  in  Daniell's  "Physics,"may  be  read  and  studied 
with  benefit  by  any  one. 

How  shall  physics  be  studied  ?  It  depends  on 
the  student  and  teacher,  if  there  is  one.  It  may 
be  studied  by  experiment  on  the  inductive  system. 
This  is  the  popular  way  at  present,  and  for  a  very 
good  reason  is  accepted  as  the  best  method.  The 
very  good  reason  is  the  following  :  The  trouble  with 
the  rising  generation  is  that  they  have  not  sufficient 
acquaintance  with  or  realization  of  the  real  or  con- 
crete world.  To  them  everything  in  physics  is  apt 
to  appear  as  an  abstraction.  When  studying  heat 
it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  conduction  of 


44  PHYSICS  OF  COMMON  THINGS. 

heat  does  not  present  itself  to  them  as  the  same  thing 
that  makes  one  drop  a  poker  that  has  been  left  in 
the  fire.  Being  in  the  realms  of  science  and  studied 
as  such,  the  heat  of  the  books  of  physics,  they  think, 
must  be  something  peculiar  and  unfamiliar.  But  it 
is  not — it  is  the  same  thing  as  we  meet  in  every-day 
life. 

By  teaching  the  science  inductively  and  letting 
the  experiments  tell  the  laws,  and  by  letting  the 
pupils  perform  the  experiments  themselves,  they  lose 
this  abstract  conception  of  physics.  Thus  taught  it 
becomes  a  real  every-day  thing. 

If  you  examine  some  of  the  newer  school  manuals, 
this  treatment  will  be  very  conspicuous  in  it.  The 
deduction  might  seem  to  be  that  those  for  whom  this 
book  is  written  should  do  the  same — should  study 
physics  inductively  and  by  experiment. 

But  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  those  who  honor  this 
little  work  by  perusing  it,  and  making  it  of  use  to 
them  in  their  life's  work,  have  a  special  aptitude  for 
science.  They  will  probably  have  always  handled 
tools,  and  will  not  be  apt  to  take  so  abstract  a  view 
of  things.  And  then  the  question  of  time  comes  in. 
It  takes  many  long  hours  to  work  up  physics  by  ex- 
periment. If  the  time  can  be  afforded,  try  experi- 
ments in  physics  as  you  go  along.  The  ground  can 
be  covered  by  the  use  of  very  little  apparatus. 
"Physics  without  apparatus"  has  now  been  quite 
highly  developed.  If  the  time  is  not  at  your  dis- 


EXPERIMENTING  IN  PHYSICS.  45 

posal,  never  mind.  You  can  learn  physics  by  study 
and  reading  alone. 

One  reason  for  rather  discouraging  too  many  ex- 
periments in  physics  is  that  work  in  construction 
may  be  more  practically  applied  to  electric  apparatus. 
Yet  here  the  error  of  being  too  practical  may  be 
fallen  into.  A  one-sided  man,  we  have  said  before,  is 
imperfect.  Some  "few  experiments  can  be  tried  as 
you  read  and  study  physics,  and  they  will  take  the 
guise  of  recreation.  In  sound  the  experiments  in 
loops  and  nodes  and  harmonic  vibration  may  be 
performed  very  nicely  with  a  wire  stretched  across  a 
table  over  two  blocks  of  wood  as  bridges.  Vibrating 
flames  may  be  observed  with  a  small  looking-glass 
twisted  back  and  forth  in  the  hand.  A  square  of 
glass  held  down  on  a  spool  by  the  thumb  will  serve 
for  a  Chladni  plate.  In  heat  the  simplest  possible 
arrangements  will  serve  to  show  the  expansion  of 
solids,  liquids  and  gases.  A  blacksmith  putting  on 
a  wagon-tire  shows  the  first  of  these.  In  light, 
shadow  photometry  may  be  worked  up  with  consid- 
erable advantage  as  being  of  direct  applicability  to 
electrical  work.  A  few  hours  will  be  well  spent  in 
making  a  skeleton  of  experiments  to  carry  your  liv- 
ing body  of  physics.  But  the  bulk  of  physics  you 
must  get  from  the  books. 

Do  not  try  to  cut  mathematics  out  of  it.  Wher- 
ever a  formula  is  given,  remorselessly  hunt  it  down 
and  work  it  out  to  the  last  point.  Keep  dimensions  in 


46  MATHEMATICS  OF  PHYSICS. 

mind,  and  over  and  over  again  go  through  their  evo- 
lution. Then,  when  you  reach  electricity,  you  will 
feel  at  home.  It  will  appear  how  a  watt  is  a  unit  of 
rate  of  energy,  and  the  relation  of  electrical  to  me- 
chanical units  will  be  made  clear;  without  dimen- 
sions you  can  never  see  how  these  relations  are 
deduced.  In  after-life  you  may  forget  the  exact  de- 
duction of  dimensions,  but  enough  will  stick  to  give 
electrical  and  mechanical  units  a  meaning  which 
they  would  never  otherwise  acquire. 


47 


CHAPTER    IV. 

CHEMISTRY. 

DIFFICULTIES  OF  EXPERIMENTING  —  THE  COAL-FIRE 
AND  THE  PLANT THE  REACTION  OF  THE  COAL- 
FIRE ITS  EQUATION  AND  WHAT  IT  TELLS — 

EQUATIONS    THE    SHORT -HAND     OF     CHEMISTRY 

STOICHIOMETRY EXPERIMENTS PRECAUTIONS 

BATTERY     CHEMICALS THERMO-CHEMISTRY 

CHEMICAL  RECREATIONS — BOOKS — OUTLINES  OF 
A  CHEMICAL  COURSE — HOW  TO  READ — VALUE  OF 
A  TEACHER. 

There  are  a  number  of  books  treating  of  simple  ex- 
periments in  physics.  The  field  in  this  department 
is  pretty  well  covered.  Every  now  and  then  the 
inquiry  comes  up  for  a  book  devoted  to  simple  chem- 
ical experiments.  This  book  has  not  yet  been 
written — at  least  a  satisfactory  one  has  not.  The 
reason  is  not  hard  to  find.  Chemistry  is  a  science 
that  admits  of  no  trifling.  Simple  experiments  in  it 
are  very  attractive,  but  a  series  of  such  soon  loses 
variety,  and  they  become  monotonous  to  all  but  the 
real  student.  An  electrician  should  know  the  theory 


48     CHEMICAL  REACTIONS  SEEN  EVERYWHERE. 

of  chemistry,  as  his  science  is  closely  linked  there- 
with, but  unfortunately  the  theory  of  chemistry, 
unfixed  in  the  mind  by  any  experimental  work,  seems 
very  unreal  and  abstract. 

Chemical  work  can  often  be  carried  on  at  school 
to  a  point  where  some  idea  may  be  formed  of  what 
qualities  a  gas  may  present,  of  what  a  reaction  be- 
tween two  substances  is,  of  the  actions  of  acids  on 
metals.  If  the  experimenter,  knowing  nothing  of 
chemistry,  begins  to  experiment  without  supervision, 
it  is  merely  a  question  of  time  when  he  will  blow 
himself  up. 

This  makes  studying  chemistry  by  experiment  at 
least  of  doubtful  expediency  if  it  has  to  be  done 
alone.  But  can  chemical  operations  be  seen  other- 
wise ?  They  can  be  seen  everywhere.  One  of  the 
highest  affinities  in  all  chemistry  is  being  constantly 
satisfied  in  a  violent  reaction  seen  in  every  house. 
The  plant,  with  intense  chemical  force,  given  it  by 
the  sun's  actinic  rays,  is  doing  the  reverse  and  un- 
doing the  combination  silently  and  without  violent 
exhibition  of  its  powers.  Are  not  these  chemical  ex- 
periments available  for  purposes  of  study  ? 

For  what  takes  place  in  the  hard  coal-fire,  which  is 
the  first  reaction  spoken  of?  The  coal  is  principally 
carbon,  one  of  the  elements,  and  carbon  has  an 
intense  affinity  for  another  element,  oxygen.  About 
one-fifth  of  the  air  is  oxygen.  In  spite  of  its  affinity 
for  oxygen,  carbon  will  not  unite  therewith  below  a 


THE  CHEMISTRY  OF  A   FIRE.  49 

red-heat ;  when  heated  in  the  air,  it  combines  with 
oxygen.  Chemical  energy  is  satisfied  or  disappears, 
and  heat  and  light  energy  are  produced.  The  coal, 
in  other  words,  burns.  Now  take  on  faith  two  state- 
ments. Twelve  pounds  of  coal  combine  with  thirty- 
two  pounds  of  oxygen.  This  ratio,  for  complete 
combustion,  always  and  invariably  holds.  Next,  if 
the  carbon  and  oxygen  were  both  in  the  gaseous 
state,  it  would  be  found  that  the  carbon  would  have 
half  the  volume  of  the  oxygen.  As  a  species  of 
chemical  short-hand,  twelve  units  by  weight  of  car- 
bon are  indicated  by  C.  Sixteen  parts  by  weight  of 
oxygen  are  indicated  by  O.  These  same  symbols 
indicate  equal  volumes  of  the  elements  in  question 
when  in  the  gaseous  state.  Now  write  as  follows  : 
C+2O=CO2. 

This  says  that  one  volume  (in  the  gaseous  state) 
of  carbon  weighing  twelve  units  combines  with  two 
volumes  (in  the  gaseous  state)  of  oxygen  weighing 
(2X16=32)  thirty-two  units.  The  product  is  (12+ 
32=44)  forty-four  units  by  weight  of  another  sub- 
stance called  carbon  dioxide,  or,  more  generally, 
carbonic  acid  gas.  It  also  tells  a  chemist  that  the 
volume  of  the  new  gas  is  equal  to  that  of  the 
oxygen. 

This  is  one  of  the  dreaded  chemical  reactions  that 
seem  such  a  mystery  to  many.  They  are  really  a 
great  convenience  ;  the  eight  characters  of  the  equa- 
tion tell  as  much  as  can  be  told  in  as  many  lines  of 


50  SAFE  EXPERIMENTS. 

type,  and  the  common  coal-fire  gives  us  the  chem- 
ical reaction  expressed  in  the  equation.  The  pro- 
spective engineer  should  give  himself  a  thorough 
course  of  chemical  equations,  and  should  work  up 
the  proportions  they  express.  This  species  of  calcu- 
lation or  chemical  arithmetic  is  given  in  the  text- 
books and  should  be  learned,  or  at  least  the  under- 
lying theory  outlined  above  should  be  well  mastered. 

Too  much  is  not  asked  in  this.  A  person  with  the 
least  aptitude  for  mathematics  will  find  no  trouble  in 
it.  One  fond  of  mathematics  will  take  much  the 
same  interest  in  stoichiometry,  as  the  arithmetic  of 
chemistry  is  termed,  as  a  chess-player  does  in  chess 
problems. 

It  will  be  easy  to  perform  a  few  experiments  in 
safety  by  avoiding  the  use  of  certain  chemicals,  such 
as  strong  acids,  and  by  avoiding  certain  causes  of 
explosion.  But  it  would  be  very  hard  to  adequately 
state  in  words  the  various  precautions  which  a  prac- 
ticed chemist  instinctively  takes.  Even  in  heating 
a  liquid  in  a  test-tube  he  never  points  its  opening  at 
himself  or  at  others  for  fear  the  contents  may  spurt 
out.  In  adding  a  chemical  to  it  he  follows  the  same 
rule.  If  two  liquids  of  different  specific  gravities  are 
in  the  tube,  he  always  shakes  them  up  thoroughly  be- 
fore heating,  to  guard  against  explosive  ebullition. 
It  is  thus  all  through  chemistry.  Little  details  of 
manipulation  distinguish  the  good  from  the  bad 
operator.  The  electrical  engineer  cannot  well  afford 


FORMULAS   OF  CHEMICALS.  51 

time  to  learn  all  these  minutiae.  If  he  has  the  time 
and  facilities,  he  will  of  course  try  to  learn  as  much 
as  possible. 

But  let  him  study  the  formulae  of  his  own  chem- 
icals. If  he  is  using  gravity  cells,  he  must  not  be 
content  to  throw  in  what  to  him  is  nothing  but  a 
"blue-stone."  Let  him  know  it  as  cupric  sulphate  ; 
let  him  learn  its  formula  CuSO4,  5H8O,  and  find 
what  each  symbol  stands  for,  and  for  what  relative 
weight  of  its  respective  element.  Distinguish  be- 
tweeen  this  compound  and  cupric  oxide,  CuO,  of 
the  Lalande-Chaperon  couple.  Dissolve  some  Cu- 
SO4, 5H2O  in  water,  immerse  a  piece  of  polished  iron 
in  it,  and  see  the  deposit  of  copper,  and  realize  that 
some  of  the  iron  has  stepped  into  the  copper's  place, 
and  has  formed  one  of  the  iron  sulphates. 

The  many  batteries  in  use  will  give  a  good  field  for 
studying  chemistry,  and  the  mere  handling  of  a 
chemical  salt,  such  as  sal  ammoniac  (ammonium 
chloride),  if  its  formula  and  constitution  are  made  to 
go  with  it  in  the  mind,  will  give  to  chemistry  the  de- 
sired reality. 

Next  comes  thermo-chemistry,  which  is  simply  the 
laws  of  the  relations  of  chemical  change  to  energy. 
While  nothing  is  more  interesting  than  the  working 
out  of  the  voltage  corresponding  to  chemical 
changes,  such  is  generally  rather  an  ornamental  or 
perhaps  accessory  branch  of  the  study.  The  general 
principles  of  thermo-chemistry,  which  may  be  stated 


CHEMICAIv   FORMULAE. 


in  very  few  words,  should  certainly  be  known.  To 
give  the  aspect  of  unity,  it  would  seem  preferable  to 
take  thermo-chemistry  as  a  part  of  the  conservation 
of  energy.  The  engineer  should  have  very  fixed 
ideas  on  this  subject  of  the  conservation  of  energy, 
for  his  profession  is  concerned  almost  entirely  in 
converting  one  into  another  and  in  distributing  the 
energy  he  has  shaped.  Thermo-chemistry  relates  to 
the  heat  units  produced  by  coal,  the  watts  produced 
by  a  battery,  and  the  voltage  developed  therein.  It 
is  clear  that  acquaintance  with  it  should  be  a  part  of 
his  stock  of  knowledge. 

What  is  said  in  relation  to  chemistry  may  be  taken 
as  implying  that  the  engineer  need  not  go  very 
deeply  into  this  science,  and  such  is  the  most  prac- 
tical view  of  the  case.  Chemical  formulae  find  no 
part  in  the  every-day  work  of  the  electrician.  But 
none  the  less  should  as  much  of  chemistry  as  is  out- 
lined above  be  studied.  It  is  depressing  to  one's 
moral  nature  to  think  of  a  presumable  electrician 
using  primary  and  storage  batteries,  working  with 
currents  whose  units  are  based  on  voltametric  work, 
yet  knowing  nothing  of  chemistry. 

There  is,  however,  a  chemistry  without  apparatus, 
which  can  be  used  as  a  species  of  instructive  recrea- 
tion. A  number  of  experiments  in  it  can  be  traced 
up  in  the  literature  of  the  science.  Thus  roll  or 
twist  a  strip  of  paper  into  an  allumette  or  gas- 
lighter.  Holding  its  large  end  pinched  between  the 


CHEMISTRY   WITHOUT  APPARATUS.  53 

finger  and  thumb,  and  holding  it  pointing  down- 
wards, light  the  lower  end.  As  the  flame  works  its 
way  up  towards  the  hand,  a  black  cinder  is  left 
nearly  of  the  shape  of  the  allumette.  The  flame  is 
producing  destructive  distillation  as  well  as  combus- 
tion of  the  paper.  A  white  smoke  which  is  pro- 
duced by  the  distillation  issues  from  the  lower  end. 
Now  apply  a  match  to  the  lower  end,  and  you  can 
light  the  escaping  gaseous  and  other  matter  escap- 
ing therefrom  just  as  you  can  light  gas  at  a  gas- 
burner. 

This  gives  an  excellent  illustration  of  the  action  of 
heat  on  organic  matter  and  of  combustion.  Nothing 
could  be  simpler  or  more  demonstrative.  This  is 
chemistry  without  apparatus. 

Again  put  some  sodium  bicarbonate,  which  is 
common  baking  soda,  into  a  pickle  bottle  and 
pour  on  it  some  vinegar  (acetic  acid).  It  effer- 
vesces, and  carbon  dioxide  gas  is  given  off.  Attach 
a  match  to  a  bit  of  wire,  get  the  match  burning 
well,  and  lower  it  into  the  bottle.  The  gas  extin- 
guishes it  as  effectually  as  would  water.  Try  to 
pour  some  of  the  gas  into  a  tumbler,  as  you  pour 
water,  and  test  its  presence  in  the  tumbler  by  the 
match  experiment. 

This  again  is  chemistry  without  apparatus.  Noth- 
ing in  the  laboratory  could  be  more  conclusive. 

Write  out  the  reaction  for  this  experiment.  Find 
the  formulae  of  acetic  acid  and  of  sodium  bicarbonate. 


54  REACTIONS. 


and  put  them  in  the  first  member  of  the  equation. 
When  they  react  upon  each  other,  sodium  acetate, 
water  and  carbon  dioxide  gas  are  produced.  Put 
these  in  the  second  member,  and  then  see  if  your 
equation  balances — that  is  to  say,  see  if  the  same 
symbols  and  if  the  same  number  of  each  appear 
on  both  sides  of  the  equality  sign. 

The  equation  for  destructive  distillation  of  paper 
cannot  well  be  written  out,  because  the  reaction 
varies  and  is  imperfectly  known. 

The  actions  of  acids  and  alkalies  on  test-paper  or 
vegetable  colors  can  be  easily  tried  with  litmus  paper 
or  red  cabbage  infusion.  Use  vinegar  for  the  acid,  and 
ammonia  for  the  alkali.  A  few  cents'  worth  of  com- 
mon hydrochloric  acid  will  give  more  satisfaction  in 
all  these  experiments  than  will  vinegar. 

You  will,  if  you  undertake  to  work  up  this  study, 
infallibly  procure  a  little  apparatus,  if  it  is  only  a  few 
test-tubes.  But  it  is  not  advisable  for  you  to  go  too 
deeply  into  chemistry  unless  you  can  have  a  good 
teacher  and  plenty  of  time  at  your  disposal.  A  few 
experiments  made  as  above  suggested,  with  their  re- 
actions studied  and  understood,  will  give  an  idea  of 
a  science  to  which  years  may  readily  be  devoted. 

The  following  may  be  taken  as  an  abstract  of  the 
ground  which  should  be  covered.  The  great  object 
of  the  student  should  be  to  grasp  the  general  theory 
of  the  science.  There  is  little  use  for  him  to  know 
the  atomic  weights  by  heart, — there  is  every  reason 


OUTLINES  OF   STUDY.  OF  CHEMISTRY.          55 

for  him  to  understand  just  what  an  atomic  weight  is. 
This,  then,  is  presented  as  a  schedule : 

Three  states  of  matter,  solid,  liquid,  gaseous. 

What  an  element  is — the  elements  in  general. 

What  a  compound  substance  is — the  combination 
of  elements. 

The  divisions  of  elements — the  atom  and  mole- 
cule. 

The  compound  molecule. 

The  law  of  atomic  weights. 

Relation  of  the  law  of  atomic  weights  to  chemical 
combinations — this  includes  0,  the  constancy  of  com- 
position ;  £,  the  law  of  multiples  ;  c,  the  law  of  equiv- 
alents. 

Law  of  combination  by  volumes  in  the  gaseous 
state  (Avogadro's  Law). 

Chemical  symbols — their  full  meaning  and  their 
use  in  equations  and  formulae. 

Atomicity — the  bonds  or  saturating  power  of  ele- 
ments ;  monads,  dyads,  etc. 

Chemical  affinity  a  source  of  work  ;  hence  unsat- 
isfied chemical  affinity  a  form  of  potential  energy  ; 
by  satisfying  chemical  affinity  kinetic  energy  is  pro- 
duced. 

Relations  of  heat  to  chemical  affinity. 

Electrolysis  or  decomposition  of  chemical  com- 
pounds by  electricity. 

This  much  the  student  should  work  up  as  thor- 
oughly as  possible  with  a  good  text-book.  A  pad 


50  PHILOSOPHY   OF   CHEMISTRY. 

and  pencil  should  be  at  his  side,  and  symbols  used  at 
every  step  where  possible.  When  this  ground  has 
been  covered  even  cursorily,  and  it  is  best  to  go  over 
it  all  as  well  as  possible,  three  or  four  of  the  ele- 
ments should  be  taken  up,  one  by  one.  Oxygen, 
hydrogen,  carbon  and  zinc  would  be  good  ones. 
These  should  be  studied  with  constant  reference  to 
the  schedule  outlined  above,  the  idea  being  to  make 
each  element  illustrate  the  general  philosophy  of 
chemistry.  This  philosophy  the  schedule  given 
above  is  designed  to  cover. 

The  elements  studied  may  be  extended.  It  will 
be  of  inestimable  advantage  if  a  few  weeks  or  if  a 
few  hours  a  week  for  a  few  weeks  can  be  given  to 
practical  work.  It  is  possible  that  it  can  be  done 
alone,  but  for  personal  safety,  as  well  as  for  much 
greater  efficiency,  it  is  most  desirable  that  an 
instructor  should  be  employed.  In  our  high  schools, 
teachers  are  always  to  be  found  capable  of  giving 
excellent  chemical  instruction.  Some  arrangement 
can  probably  be  made  with  some  of  these. 

In  studying  the  philosophy  of  chemistry,  as  we 
have  termed  it,  much  must  be  taken  on  faith,  and  it 
will  seem  dry  and  abstract,  and  perhaps  impossible 
to  remember.  This  is  often  the  case  with  things 
involving  a  new  order  of  thought.  But  two  weeks' 
work  following  good  study  will  work  a  wonderful 
change,  and  the  science  will  crystallize  into  shape  in 
the  mind,  and  the  symmetry  of  it  will  clearly  appear. 


QUANTITATIVE  CHEMISTRY.  57 

Chemical  work  is  divided  into  two  branches,  qual- 
itative and  quantitative.  The  first  treats  of  the 
qualities  of  things,  such  as  the  various  properties  of 
the  elements,  the  color,  specific  gravity  and  general 
nature  of  each,  and  of  the  salts  of  reactions  and  of  all 
substances.  Quantitative  work  refers  to  the  quantities 
that  enter  into  reactions  and  to  the  determination  of 
such  weights  and  volumes.  Chemistry  restricted  to 
one  or  the  other  branch  is  but  half  expressed  or 
learned,  as  the  case  may  be.  The  quantitative  rela- 
tions expressed  by  an  equation  have  been  just 
brought  forward.  These  relations  should  be  prac- 
tically studied,  and  a  week  in  a  laboratory  will  give 
some  idea  of  them. 

If  the  study  is  abandoned  before  the  full  meaning 
of  an  equation  is  reached,  a  great  error  will  have 
been  made.  The  relations  expressed  by  an  equation 
are  quantitative  as  well  as  qualitative,  as  has  been 
shown — the  symbol  Zn,  for  instance,  means  not  only 
zinc,  but  sixty-five  parts  by  weightof  zinc,  the  "part" 
being  the  relative  unit,  which  happens  to  be  the 
atomic  weight  of  hydrogen.  Now  a  person  may 
learn  all  this,  and  learn  the  meaning  of  equations, 
but  he  will  miss  the  most  perfect  grasp  of  it,  if  he 
does  no  quantitative  work.  The  conception  of  what 
a  precipitate  is  is  easy  to  acquire.  If  such  be  fil- 
tered out,  washed  and  weighed,  if  by  stoichiometry 
and  equations  the  weight  is  made  to  tell  its  full  story, 
a  quantitative  determination  has  beeri  made,  and  the 


58  QUANTITATIVE  CHEMISTRY. 

student  at  once  perceives  the  idea  of  relative  weights 
of  atoms.  The  Edison  chemical  meter,  the  silver 
voltameter,  the  operations  of  the  electroplating 
bath,  the  consumption  of  definitely  and  unvary- 
ingly related  parts  of  zinc  and  copper  sulphate  in  a 
Daniell  cell, — all  such  are  understood  in  a  new  light. 
So  our  concluding  advice  is  for  the  student  to  do 
a  little  quantitative  work,  to  arrange  with  a  chemical 
friend  or  even  with  a  pharmacist  for  a  little  instruc- 
tion and  for  the  use  of  the  creator  of  modern  chem- 
istry and  the  present  arbiter  of  all  its  operations — 
the  balance.  For  in  giving  us  balances  which  weigh 
down  to  one-twentieth  of  a  milligram,  the  Beckers 
and  other  balance-makers  have  made  great  and 
important  contributions  to  the  development  of 
chemistry. 


CHAPTER  V. 
ELECTRICITY  AT   HOME. 

ELECTRICAL  EXPERIMENTS  AT  HOME MODERN  PHYS- 
ICS TAUGHT  QUANTITATIVELY — SIMPLE  APPLI- 
ANCES NOW  USED — MAKING  ELECTRICAL 
APPARATUS  AT  HOME — THE  WHEATSTONE 
BRIDGE — GALVANOMETER  RESISTANCE  COILS 

CURRENT  STRENGTH — BATTERIES — STATIC  ELEC- 
TRICITY   ELECTROMETERS CONDENSERS AM- 

PERE'S  LAW — MAGNETISM. 

What  direction  should  work  at  home  take  in  the 
electrical  line  ?  It  is  by  no  means  necessary  that 
much  should  be  done,  but  it  is  hard  to  imagine  any 
one  with  a  taste  for  the  science  who  will  not  work  in 
it  during  spare  moments.  There  is  also  this  to  be 
said,  that  before  entering  into  any  engagement  at  an 
electrical  works  or  station  his  time  will  generally 
be  more  at  the  student's  disposal  than  afterwards. 
This  is  the  period  in  which  to  familiarize  himself 
with  electrical  construction.  Fortunately  much  can 
be  done  with  the  simplest  appliances.  The  work  at 
home,  or  much  of  it,  should  take  the  direction  of 
electrical  measurements. 


60  SIMPLE   APPARATUS. 

Electricity  has  been  defined  as  the  science  of 
measurement.  This  definition  is  correct,  but  not 
specific  enough,  for  physics  in  general  may  be  iden- 
tically defined.  To  see  how  the  science  of  physics  is 
now  taught,  the  Harvard  schedule  of  work  to  be 
done  before  admission  to  the  college  course  may 
be  consulted.  It  is  full  of  measurements — nearly 
everything  in  it  refers  to  weighing  or  measuring 
or  determination  of  strain.  The  old  system  of 
simple  demonstration  of  laws  has  become  antiquated. 

The  same  applies  to  electricity, — in  the  modern 
science  we  work  by  volts,  amperes,  and  other  units. 
A  constant  appeal  to  measurement  underlies  all  oper- 
ations. 

From  the  Harvard  schedule  another  hint  as  to 
modern  methods  of  teaching  may  be  taken.  The 
work  prescribed  in  it  is  all  done  with  the  simplest  ap- 
pliances. The  strength  of  materials  and  factors  of 
stress  are  determined  with  ordinary  spring  balances. 
As  C.  V.  Boys  expresses  it  : 

"  In  these  days  we  are  all  too  apt  to  depart  from  the  simple 
ways  of  our  fathers,  and,  instead  of  following  them,  to  fall  down 
and  worship  the  brazen  image  which  the  instrument-maker  hath 
set  up." 

Our  student  may  have  seen  the  beautiful  appa- 
ratus in  an  electrical  dealers'  store.  The  meter  or 
shorter  bridges,  the  boxes  of  resistance  coils,  the 
tangent  galvanometers, — all  vie  with  each  other  in 
elegance  of  construction.  If  he  had  but  the  money, 
here  is  where  he  would  spend  it.  But  he  can  do  bet- 


HOME-MADE  ELECTRICAL  APPARATUS.        61 

ter  than  that — let  him  make  his  own  apparatus.  He 
can  make  it  accurately  enough  for  the  end  in  view, 
which  end  is  to  learn  something  about  electrical 
measurements  and  incidentally  to  acquire  practical 
experience  in  electrical  construction.  Again  the 
true  theory  of  instruction  is  to  begin  at  the  bottom^ 
and  to  start  with  the  simplest  things.  His  first 
measurements  may  be  of  the  "spring  balance'' 
order  and  made  with  the  crudest  possible  apparatus. 

Let  him  study  out  the  familiar  diamond  of  the 
Wheatstone  bridge  and  see  how  simple  is  the  theory. 
Imagine  the  four  resistances  to  be  four  pipes  of  dif- 
ferent sizes,  and  see  if  water  would  not  follow  the 
same  law.  Next  on  a  board  he  may  lay  out  the  con- 
nections. One  standard  resistance  is  required,  which 
can  be  taken  arbitrarily.  An  electric-light  carbon 
with  caps  of  lead  cast  on  the  ends  to  give  facilities 
for  good  connections  will  answer  for  this.  A  gal- 
vanometer is  needed.  A  compass  resting  within  a 
coil  of  wire  will  suffice.  The  proportionate  resist- 
ances of  two  elements  of  the  bridge  must  be  known. 
These  he  can  deduce  from  their  relative  lengths. 
Connecting  his  battery,  he  can  in  a  few  minutes  de- 
termine how  many  times  the  resistance  of  the  carbon 
is  contained  in  the  unknown  wire  or  conductor  whose 
resistance  he  is  measuring. 

The  above  description  suggests  a  meter-bridge,  as 
it  is  popularly  called,  and  this,  as  the  simplest,  is, 
perhaps,  the  best  to  start  with. 


02  HOME-MADE    INSTRUMENTvS. 


The  first  thing  which  the  student  will  find  is  that 
his  galvanometer  is  entirely  unsatisfactory.  A  very 
delicate  one  is  essential.  He  will  feel  the  want  of  a 
standard  also,  for  the  true  resistance  of  his  carbon  is 
unknown.  But  his  extemporized  galvanometer  will 
probably  be  his  first  trouble.  Here  will  be  a  tempta- 
tion to  construct  a  good  one.  Next  may  come  the 
construction  of  a  standard  resistance  coil.  He  can 
borrow  a  one  or  two  ohm  coil,  and  using  his  galva- 
nometer and  Wheatstone  bridge,  can  make  a  resist- 
ance coil  for  himself. 

When  he  gets  this  far,  he  finds  that  his  bridge  is  a 
poor-looking  affair.  So  he  gets  a  hard-wood  board 
and  makes  an  accurate  meter  or  half-meter  bridge. 
He  has  read  up"  on  the  subject,  and  what  he  now 
reads  is  more  than  mere  words  to  him.  He  studies 
the  proportions  required  for  accuracy,  the  expedient 
of  increasing  the  length  of  the  proportional  wire,  so 
as  to  work  at  its  most  sensitive  portion,  and  learns 
the  range  of  work  which  his  one  resistance  coil  can 
adequately  cover.  The  conditions  of  accurate  work- 
ing make  the  range,  with  the  one  resistance  coil, 
very  limited.  He  needs  more  coils. 

His  accurate  bridge,  with  sensitive  galvanometer, 
gives  him  the  facilities  for  making  new  coils  of 
greater  resistance,  and  his  set  increases  in  extent. 
He  reads  up  the  subject  of  coils,  notes  that  they 
must  be  wound  non-inductively,  studies  the  best 
ways  of  securing  insulation,  and  the  best  way  of  pro- 
viding end-contacts. 


BATTERY   FACTORS.  6-3 

He  will  now  wish  to  measure  current  strength,  for 
doing  which  he  will  build  a  tangent  galvanom- 
eter. If  he  works  with  a  battery,  he  will  wish  to 
obtain  its  factors.  This  involves  the  determination 
of  potential.  If  his  tangent  galvanometer  is  wound 
finely  enough,  he  can  determine  potential  directly, 
using  a  Daniell  couple  for  standard  ;  or  he  can  use 
some  of  the  other  methods  described  in  the  books, 
such  as  Poggendorff's  method. 

Current  measurement  may  also  be  done  by  voltam- 
eters. If  a  balance  is  at  hand,  a  copper  or  silver 
voltameter  may  be  used.  A  very  practical  experi- 
ment would  be  to  make  a  zinc  voltameter,  such  as 
the  Edison  electric  meter.  This  electrolytic  work  is 
of  great  utility,  and  for  it  the  student  could  make 
some  kind  of  a  balance  which  would  give  approx- 
imate results. 

A  good  galvanometer  being  a  necessity,  some  work 
should  be  devoted  to  making  it,  and,  perhaps,  all 
things  considered,  a  tangent  instrument  with  high 
and  low  resistance  circuits  would  be  the  best. 
This  may  have  its  needle  suspended  by  a  filament, 
and  may  carry  a  convex  mirror,  so  as  to  give  prac- 
tice in  the  reflecting  principle.  Next  a  standard 
battery  will  be  needed,  for  which  the  Daniell  combi- 
nation may  be  used.  Now  the  student  may  determine 
voltages,  having  at  hand  the  essentials. 

Wheatstone  bridge  work  has  already  been  spoken 
of,  and  will  be  the  most  important  in  every  way  of 


64  STATIC   ELECTRICITY. 

the  operations  so  far  described,  because  in  it  we  are 
brought  into  contact  with  the  most  used  measure- 
ment of  the  electrician.  Such  a  book  as  Ayrton's 
"  Practical  Electricity  "  will  be  found  useful  in  work- 
ing with  a  bridge,  as  it  gives  the  practical  points 
which  conduce  to  accuracy. 

The  above  is  a  mere  hint  of  how  our  student  can 
practice  electrical  measurement  and  construction. 
Every  boy  is  apt  to  have  made  his  own  batteries. 
These  are  very  easy  to  construct  now.  Discarded 
bits  of  electric-light  carbon  are  doing  service  all 
over  the  land  in  amateur  batteries,  and  even  in  those 
sold  in  the  stores.  It  is  probable  that  the  student 
will  make  a  dynamo  or  mechanical  generator.  One 
thing  will  lead  to  another,  and  soon  he  will  have  a 
concrete  idea  of  electricity  as  far  as  his  knowledge 
goes.  This  means  that  a  volt  or  an  ohm  will  no 
longer  be  to  him  shadows  and  names  only — magno- 
rum  nominum  umbrce, — but  will  mean  something 
actual  and  real. 

Accepting  the  convenient  division  of  the  science 
into  static  electricity,  dynamic  electricity  and  mag- 
netism, the  suggestion  would  be  not  to  neglect  the 
older  sister,  static  electricity,  and  at  the  least  to  go 
as  far  in  it  as  can  conveniently  be  done  without  the 
;.se  of  an  electric  influence  machine.  But  if  an 
influence  machine  can  be  borrowed,  procured  or 
constructed,  the  student  will  perceive  the  utility 
of  studying  its  action  and  of  performing  experiments 


ELECTROMETERS.  65 

with  it.  Such  a  machine  places  at  command  an  un- 
limited supply  of  very  high-tension  electricity,  and 
enables  very  showy  experiments  to  be  performed. 

With  it  the  Leyden  jar  can  be  investigated — its 
rapid  silent  discharge  by  air  convection  when  it  is 
connected  to  a  quantity  of  points,  its  residual 
charge,  and  alternative  paths  of  discharge.  In  the 
latter  line  of  work  it  would  be  advisable  to  go  over 
some  of  Oliver  Lodge's  experiments — those  in  which 
he  worked  upon  the  protection  of  buildings  from 
lightning.  Reports  of  his  lectures  are  accessible, 
and  his  work  was  most  interesting. 

With  plenty  of  high-tension  electricity  at  com- 
mand, electrical  resonance  can  be  studied,  and  at 
least  some  of  Hertz's  experiments  can  be  worked  up. 

As  regards  quantitative  work,  something  can  be 
done  in  it.  The  student  can  construct  a  rough  elec- 
trometer— something  better  than  the  old  quadrant 
and  pithball.  This  will  enable  him  to  measure  elec- 
tric tension,  and  to  measure  dielectric  capacity.  A 
balance  of  some  sensibility  can  be  easily  made,  so 
that  a  Thomson  weight  electrometer  might  be 
built  and  experimented  with.  This  would  be  of 
double  utility,  as  it  brings  us  face  to  face  with  abso- 
lute measurements. 

An  introduction  to  torsion  instruments  might  be 
made  here  by  the  building  of  a  torsion  electrometer 
of  the  quadrant  type.  With  it  again  some  measure- 
ments could  be  got — or  at  least  an  approach  to  quan- 
titative results. 


66  MAGNETISM. 


The  construction  of  condensers  might  be  taken 
up  here,  and,  ultimately,  if  a  good  enough  galva- 
nometer is  ever  made,  the  determination  of  static 
charges,  capacities  and  dielectric  constants  could  be 
studied. 

The  laws  of  static  charges,  their  concentration  at 
the  parts  of  conductors  where  the  radius  of  curva- 
ture is  smallest,  and  the  escape  of  a  charge  from 
points  give  rise  to  a  number  of  pretty  experiments, 
which  could  easily  be  carried  out  with  little  expendi- 
ture of  time  or  labor. 

In  magnetism  the  work  must  be  prosecuted  largely 
in  full  accordance  with  Ampere's  law.  This  indi- 
cates the  reaching  the  laws  of  the  magnet  through 
electro-magnetism.  The  conception  of  a  magnetic 
circuit,  the  analogy  between  reluctance  and  resist- 
ance, between  permeance  and  resistance,  between 
permeability  and  specific  resistance,  must  be  well 
formulated,  and  lines  of  force  must  be  mapped  out  to 
illustrate  it  by  the  use  of  iron  filings.  Nor  must  the 
student  fail  to  note  where  the  analogy  fails — the 
resistance  of  an  electric  circuit  having  no  reference 
to  the  current,  while  permeability  of  iron  varies  with 
the  number  of  lines  of  force  in  a  given  cross-sec- 
tional area  ;  air,  on  the  other  hand,  holding  an  invari- 
able permeability.  In  dynamo  and  motor  construc- 
tion the  magnetic  circuit  is  the  very  soul  of  the 
matter. 

The  relations  between   a  magnet   and  a   current 


MAGNET  AND   CURRENT.  6? 

should  be  well  worked  out  experimentally,  so  that 
any  of  the  memoria  technica  given  in  the  books 
should  be  at  instant  service.  After  test  and  verifi- 
cation by  experiment  the  familiar  man  swimming 
with  the  current  will  have  a  new  interest  and  will 
tell  a  better  story  than  if  he  had  only  been  studied 
theoretically  and  from  books. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

MECHANICAL  ENGINEERING. 

GROUND   COVERED  BY   MECHANICAL  ENGINEERING 

ITS   PLACE   IN    ELECTRIC    PRACTICE — MACHINES 

AND    TOOLS ENGINE    TESTING — STRENGTH    OF 

MATERIALS MACHINERY USE  OF  THE  HANDS 

EXTREMES    IN    PRACTICE — COLLEGE     WORK    IN 

PRACTICAL     MECHANICS MACHINE-SHOP     WORK 

FOR   THE    STUDENT OBSERVATION    AND   READ- 
ING—FAULTY PRACTICE. 

Mechanical  engineering  is  a  very  comprehensive 
term.  It  covers  so  much  ground  and  so  much 
information  that  it  may  be  regarded  as  the  frame- 
work of  an  electrical  education.  Sir  William  Thom- 
son holds  that  it  forms  by  far  the  greater  part  of 
electrical  engineering. 

When,  therefore,  one  undertakes  to  speak  of  me- 
chanical engineering,  it  amounts  to  a  recapitulation 
of  a  great  part  of  such  a  book  as  the  present  one. 
An  accomplished  mechanical  engineer  can  take  hold 
of  electrical  work  with  very  little  special  preparation 
or  study.  The  student  of  electrical  engineering  may 


MECHANICS  OF   DYNAMOS. 


reach  his  goal  by  means  of  mechanical  engineering 
in  great  part,  because  mechanical  engineering  covers 
topics  of  great  value  to  him. 

The  building  of  a  dynamo  involves  considerations  of 
mechanical  engineering  in  the  balancing  of  its  arma- 
ture when  running  as  well  as  when  motionless,  in 
the  construction  of  its  journals  with  proper  end- 
play,  in  its  establishment  on  a  proper  foundation,  and 
in  other  details  of  construction.  The  driving  of  a 
dynamo  by  belt  or  otherwise  is  a  matter  of  mechan- 
ical engineering.  The  modern  high-speed  engines 
are  triumphs  in  this  branch,  and  they  are  extensively 
used  in  electric  plants.  Some  of  the  finest  examples 
of  mechanical  practice  are  seen  in  electric  light  and 
power  stations  now, — at  one  time  it  was  far  different. 
The  use  of  rope  transmission  of  power  is  excellently 
illustrated  in  some  of  them,  while  in  the  direct 
coupled  engine  and  dynamo  we  find  a  compound  ma- 
chine, whose  "better  half"  is  certainly  of  the  me- 
chanical order. 

Mechanical  engineering  covers  the  use  of  machines 
and  tools,  such  as  the  lathe  and  planer.  A  compe- 
tent engineer  should  be  able  to  design,  draw,  and 
to  a  considerable  extent  construct  a  good  steam- 
engine  of  modern  type.  Almost  any  mechanically 
qualified  person  can  make  some  kind  of  an  engine, 
but  not  many  can  execute  the  whole  properly. 

The  testing  of  engines  and  boilers,  including  the 
use  of  the  indicator,  the  correct  interpretation  of  indi- 


MATERIALS   AND   MACHINERY. 


cator-cards,  and  the  calculation  of  horse-power  there- 
from, the  determination  of  boiler  and  engine 
efficiency,  the  calculations  for  thickness  of  boiler- 
shells,  the  proportioning  of  parts  of  boilers,  the  lay- 
ing of  lines  of  steam-pipe  of  capacity  for  specified 
work,  are  examples  of  the  work  of  the  mechanical 
engineer.  His  work  may  be  defined  as  the  prac- 
tical work*  of  mechanics. 

The  calculation  of  larger  structures,  such  as 
bridges  or  roof-trusses,  is  also  within  his  scope,  but 
such  work  and  the  strength  of  building  materials  are 
usually  considered  as  appertaining  to  civil  engi- 
neering. 

He  is  concerned  with  the  strength  of  materials 
used  in  his  processes.  He  cannot  calculate  a  boiler 
without  knowing  the  qualities  of  the  metal  of  which 
it  is  to  be  made. 

The  knowledge  of  machinery  in  general  comes 
within  this  branch.  But  the  reader  with  any  bent 
for  electrical  engineering  need  not  have  machinery 
recommended  to  him  as  an  object  of  interest,  for  it 
must  be  this  to  him  on  account  of  his  very  nature. 
But  as  mechanical  engineer  he  must  do  more  than 
entertain  himself.  He  must  be  a  practical  worker. 
In  another  portion  of  this  book  work  in  factories  is 
treated.  If  the  reader  has  no  machine-tools  of  his 
own  and  no  access  to  a  shop,  he  must  have  in  his 
mind  a  determination  to  sooner  or  later  supply  the 
deficiency  in  his  studies  thus  incurred.  He  must 


EDUCATION   AS  A   MECHANIC.  71 

know  something  about  tools  practically.  If  he  will 
study  up  a  tool  thoroughly,  he  can  easily  learn  to 
work  it.  It  would  even  be  well  for  him,  or  better 
than  nothing,  to  do  work  in  a  gas-fitter's  shop,  so  as 
to  get  some  idea  of  how  pipe  are  fitted. 

One  object  of  this  is  evident.  If  he  has  to  enter  a 
manufacturing  establishment  in  any  capacity,  knowl- 
edge of  tools  will  stand  him  in  excellent  stead. 

Another  object  to  be  gained  is  the  use  of  the 
hands.  An  engineer  should  be  able  to  employ  these 
important  members  to  good  effect  when  called  upon. 
In  the  courses  in  mechanical  engineering  given  in 
our  best  colleges,  every  student  is  given  a  training 
in  some  branch  or  branches  of  machine-shop  work. 
An  intelligent  person  who  can  do  one  kind  of  such 
operations  will  have  little  trouble  in  taking  up  a  new 
tool. 

Therefore  he  who  wishes  to  be  an  electrician 
should  unquestionably  be  a  mechanic.  This  may 
not  in  all  cases  mean  that  he  must  know  how  to  run 
a  giant  planer  to  the  best  advantage,  paring  down 
the  edge  of  thirty-inch  armor-plate  as  if  it  were 
pine  wood.  He  might  not  be  a  success  in  running  a 
jewelers'  lathe  and  in  cutting  out  microscopic  pin- 
ions. But  in  him  there  should  be  the  capacity  for 
doing  such  work  if  the  time  should  come  for  him  to 
perform  it.  An  unwashed,  oily  workman,  standing 
all  day  before  a  drill-press  and  drearily  reaming  out 
holes  in  castings  where  the  iron  falls  in  dust  slowly 


72  THE  REAL  MECHANIC. 


from  the  hole,  who,  when  he  goes  to  the  lathe,  cen- 
ters his  work  on  center-punch  prickings,  too  lazy  or 
too  ignorant  to  drill  a  center-hole  which  will  bear  on 
the  shoulders  of  the  lathe-center  and  not  on  its 
point,  may  call  himself  a  mechanic.  But  does  not  he 
yield  to  a  man  like  the  scientist  Boys,  who  has 
evolved  the  quartz  fibre  as  a  suspension  filament, 
who  worked  out  the  handling  and  manipulation  of 
the  almost  invisible  thread  of  rock-crystal,  and  who 
makes  up  his  own  apparatus  as  required  ?  So, 
though  you  may  have  spent  months  in  a  dirty  ma- 
chine-shop, be  chary  about  calling  yourself  a  me- 
chanic,— though  you  are  at  home  with  a  lathe  or  a 
planer,  you  are  not  a  mechanical  engineer  until  you 
can  work  out  and  superintend  their  construction 
from  the  pig  and  bar. 

If  you  wish  to  know  how  far  a  man  may  go  in  me- 
chanical engineering,  send  for  a  catalogue  of  a  col- 
lege where  the  degree  of  mechanical  engineer  is 
given.  You  will  be  surprised  at  the  range  of  the 
course,  and  you  must  not  suppose  that  it  is  all  books. 
The  students  put  on  overalls  and  work  in  the  shop 
just  as  you  do.  Because  their  work  is  intelligently 
directed  to  the  end  of  teaching  them  the  most  possi- 
ble in  the  shortest  time,  you  must  not  look  down  on 
it — rather  recognize  the  luxury  and  good  sense  of  it, 
— and  if  you  are,  from  force  of  circumstances,  plod- 
ding in  a  shop,  feel  that  your  long  hours  of  labor  will 
improve  you  more  by  their  disciplining  effect  than 


DESIGNING  MACHINERY.  73 

by  simply  enabling  you  to  cut  more  inches  of  screw 
in  a  day  than  the  apparently  superficial  student. 
Neither  one  should  criticise  the  other, — let  each  do 
his  best  where  he  island  feel  that  he  is  stepping  on 
the  lowest  round  of  a  ladder  of  unknown  length. 

So  you  must  be  a  mechanical  engineer.  Now  look 
over  this  book — take  out  everything  that  refers 
directly  to  electricity,  and  see  if  it  will  be  much 
smaller. 

It  speaks  of  your  natural  qualifications — do  not 
these  bespeak  a  mechanical  engineer  ?  Chemistry, 
physics  and  mechanics  are  spoken  of.  These,  too, 
apply  to  the  education  of  the  mechanical  engineer. 
All  of  this  section,  all  of  the  one  devoted  to  drawing, 
much  that  is  said  about  reading,  about  mathematics, 
steam  engineering,  etc., — does  not  all  this  apply  to  the 
same  profession  ?  Therefore,  when  you  are  a  me- 
chanical engineer,  your  work  is  more  than  one-half 
done. 

In  your  capacity  of  constructor  you  may  have  to 
design  machinery.  If  you  have  studied  up  foundry 
work,  you  will  have  constantly  in  your  mind  the  oper- 
ation of  the  model-maker,  and  will,  in  your  design, 
offer  him  as  little  difficulty  as  possible  in  making  for 
your  machinery  models  that  will  draw  from  the  sand. 
If  you  are  working  with  a  galvanometer  or  elec- 
trometer and  break  the  filament,  you  may  have  to 
replace  it  yourself.  Here  are  the  two  opposite  ex- 
tremes of  a  mechanical  constructor's  work.  You 


74      MACHINE-SHOP  WORK  AND   OBSERVATION. 

will  not  be  called  on  for  both  at  the  same  time  prob- 
ably— of  course  you  may  be, — but  the  lesson  is  clear  : 
Try  to  learn  to  use  your  hands  and  brain  well.  Be 
a  mechanic  in  manipulation  and  in  thought. 

A  good  quantity  of  machine-shop  work  will  be  ex- 
cellent for  the  student.  If  you  have  to  work  by  the 
day,  there  will  be  a  great  disadvantage  in  the  fact 
that  you  will  have  to  work  at  a  single  machine,  per- 
haps, with  not  even  a  chance  of  looking  at  another. 
But  if  you  can  run  one,  a  few  hours'  practice  will 
enable  you  to  run  another,  so  your  time  will  be  well 
spent. 

Observe  all  machinery  which  you  come  across. 
Note  the  little  details  of  construction  of  locomo- 
tives. Visit  shops  of  all  kinds — take  sketches  on 
paper — or,  what  is  far  better,  take  mental  sketches  of 
everything  you  see.  And  all  the  while  read.  In  the 
proper  place  you  will  find  a  few  mechanical  books 
recommended.  The  object  there  is  to  make  as 
short  a  list  as  is  consistent  with  the  purpose  of 
this  work  ;  but  you  can  amplify  the  list  to  any 
extent. 

Since  the  purpose  of  this  book  has  come  up,  recall 
one  theme  on  which  it  has  preached  from  the  begin- 
ning— be  thorough  even  at  the  expense  of  not  going 
over  much  ground.  If  you  are  in  a  machine-shop 
and  are  to  work  on  a  lathe  for  six  weeks,  in  that  time 
learn  all  the  mysteries  of  it.  Learn  how  the  pitch  is 
changed — work  out  the  different  combinations  of 


EXAMPLES  OF  BAD  PRACTICE.  75 

gear-wheels — calculate  what  would  happen  were  the 
feed-screw  of  a  different  pitch — note  how  the  lathe 
is  put  together — see  if  you  could  run  it  'for  light 
planing — study  out  a  method  of  working  in  it  long 
pieces,  too  long  to  go  between  its  centers.  You  will 
find  that  understanding  one  thing  very  well  will  help 
you  to  understand  others. 

Examine  electrical  line-work  and  in-door  and  out- 
door wiring,  and  see  the  numerous  examples  of 
clumsy  mechanical  work  which  meet  the  eye  every- 
where. The  exclusion  of  converters  from  the  inter- 
iors of  buildings  having  come  to  be  recognized  as 
proper,  the  custom  is  established  of  placing  them  on 
window-sills  and  elsewhere  on  building  fronts.  Per- 
haps an  unpainted  board  is  fastened  first  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  window,  and  on  that  the  con- 
verter is  placed.  Wires  are  carried  from  the  line  to 
the  converter  and  from  the  converter  into  the  house. 
The  whole  arrangement  of  unpainted  board,  rusty 
converter  case  and  weathered  wires  is  unartistic  in 
the  general  sense,  it  is  true;  but  it  is  worse  than  this. 
It  is  unartistic  in  the  technical  sense,  as  it  offends 
every  instinct  of  a  mechanic.  The  weather-worn 
arrangements  with  rusty  nails  adding  their  stains 
to  the  rest — galvanized  iron  being  an  unknown  or 
forgotten  luxury — is  unmechanical.  Can  you  not 
make  up  your  mind  that  as  a  mechanical  engineer 
you  would  attend  to  such  details  as  these,  and  re- 
deem alternating  current  lighting  from  its  present 
reproach  of  hideousness  ? 


76  INDIFFERENCE  TO   DETAILS. 

This  may  seem  too  strongly  put.  Ten  years  from 
this  time,  when  we  look  back  on  what  was  endured  at 
the  hands  of  electrical  workmen,  it  will  not  seem  so, 
for  then  the  better  era,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will  be 
inaugurated.  The  readers  of  this  book  may  furnish 
recruits  to  the  army  who  are  to  better  these  condi- 
tions. 

In-doors  we  find  the  same  indifference  to  details. 
Battens,  unvarnished  and  ugly,  are  run  everywhere, 
to  carry  wires.  They  are  run  right  across  a  mould- 
ing, no  attempt  being  made  to  follow  the  curves.  If 
this  is  impossible  with  ordinary  battens,  as  it  is,  it 
might  be  within  the  resources  of  the  mechanical  en- 
gineer to  devise  some  neater  way  of  crossing  a 
moulding  or  cornice. 

It  is  in  the  neglect  of  details  that  electric  service 
has  become  so  ugly  in  its  carrying  out.  There  is 
room  for  progress  and  improvement. 

The  details  of  engineering  practice  cover  every- 
thing of  the  nature  suggested  above.  The  use  of 
non-corrosive  iron,  galvanized  or  otherwise  protected 
from  rust  where  exposed  to  the  weather,  the  painting 
or  varnishing  of  wood-work,  the  neat  and  electrically 
perfect  jointing  of  wires, — a  multitude  of  things  of 
this  nature  come  under  the  cognizance  of  the  me- 
chanical engineer. 


77 


CHAPTER  VII. 

DRAWING. 

DRAWING    A    POOR    RELIANCE    BY    ITSELF ITS    IM- 
PORTANCE    TO      THE     ENGINEER  FREE-HAND 

PRACTICE— SKETCHES  IN  NOTE-BOOKS  OF  PHYS- 
ICS OR  CHEMISTRY SHADE  LINES PEN  OR  PEN- 
CIL PRACTICE DIMENSION  SKETCHES — PROFILE 

PAPER DESCRIPTIVE      GEOMETRY PERSPECTIVE 

BLUE  PRINTS — CARE  OF  INSTRUMENTS — CON- 
VENTIONAL REPRESENTATIONS CATALOGUES. 

Business  men  have  a  theory  that  a  really  good 
book-keeper  is  apt  to  be  so  useful  a  man  that  he 
lives  and  dies  a  book-keeper,  and  is  never  anything 
else,  so  that  it  would  seem  to  be  the  best  plan  in  a 
certain  sense  not  to  learn  book-keeping.  Some- 
what the  same  thing  applies  to  mechanical  drawing. 
It  is  well  to  understand  it,  and  to  be  able  to  do  good 
work  with  the  T  square  and  drawing-board,  but  such 
knowledge  must  be  only  an  equipment,  not  a  profes- 
sion. 

If  drawing  is  your  all,  you  will  never  leave  the 
traces.  If  you  do  draw  well,  be  sure  you  can  do 
other  things  well  also;  for  if  you  can  draw  and  can 


IMPORTANCE   OF  DRAWING. 


do  nothing  else,  you  might  almost  be  advised  to  con- 
ceal the  fact,  lest  you  become  a  draughtsman  for 
life. 

Seriously  speaking,  drawing  should  be  learned  ; 
not  necessarily  free-hand  work,  but  certainly  me- 
chanical drawing.  It  is  a  great  comfort  to  be  able 
to  produce  a  correct  sketch  of  anything  wanted,  a 
sketch  which  will  be  good  enough  for  a  draughtsman 
or  machinist  to  work  from.  A  new  dynamo  or  motor 
may  be  studied  up  on  the  drawing-board  to  great  ad- 
vantage. Even  the  working  out  of  a  simple  matter 
of  circuits  is  often  much  facilitated  by  drawing  their 
diagram  with  rule  and  right-line  pen,  instead  of  mak- 
ing confused  pencil  sketches.  It  is  possible,  too, 
that  you  may  wish  to  make  memorandum  sketches 
of  ideas  that  occur  to  you,  and  the  convenience  of 
being  able  to  do  this  for  one's  self  is  very  great. 

If  an  instrument  is  to  be  designed,  it  will  be  of 
pre-eminent  service  for  the  originator  to  be  able  to 
draw  it  for  himself,  for  to  be  obliged  to  absolutely 
depend  upon  another  to  design  for  you  is  almost 
slavery.  The  very  drawing  of  a  new  apparatus  will 
give  ideas  concerning  its  construction. 

Excellent  practice  in  drawing  consists  in  making 
a  free-hand  sketch  of  a  machine,  in  quoting  dimen- 
sions on  the  sketch,  and  in  making  from  this  a  full 
mechanical  drawing.  It  is  quite  conceivable  that 
such  operations  might  prove  very  useful  in  real  life, 
for  one  might  often  desire  a  drawing  of  some  par- 


PRACTICAL   REMARKS.  79 

ticular  thing,  which  could  only  be  obtained  in  this 
way. 

You  know  by  this  time  that  you  have  got  to  be  a 
mechanical  engineer,  if  you  are  to  be  an  electrical 
engineer.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  one  who  could  not 
draw  ?  Therefore  learn  to  draw.  Go  far  enough  in 
it  to  trust  no  unproved  drawing-board  for  square- 
ness ;  go  so  far  that  you  do  most  or  all  of  your  work 
with  T  square,  working  along  one  edge  of  your  board 
only  ;  learn  to  do  your  minor  work  with  two  trian- 
gles and  no  T  square  at  all  ;  learn  to  sketch  free- 
hand well  enough  to  get  the  basis  for  a  scale  drawing 
of  a  dynamo  or  other  machine  or  apparatus.  If  you 
draw  well  enough,  you  may  even  take  a  position  as 
draughtsman,  but  only  take  it  as  a  temporary  affair  ; 
do  not  make  it  a  permanency. 

Very  nice  practice  in  drawing  is  given  by  making 
sketches  of  any  apparatus  you  may  be  experimenting 
with.  It  will  be  of  service  as  a  method  of  clarifying 
the  thoughts  to  draw  it.  A  chemical  or  physical 
note-book  kept  on  this  principle,  and  embodying 
sketches  of  apparatus  as  actually  used,  may  be  made 
very  attractive. 

Making  little  free-hand  drawings  of  apparatus 
involves,  perhaps,  more  taste  than  artistic  skill. 
Neatness  is  the  first  requisite, — and  a  sort  of  conven- 
tional style  should  be  acquired.  To  give  effect, 
shade  lines  may  be  used.  You  draw  extra  heavy  the 
lines  which  indicate  corners  or  edges  of  flat  surfaces 


80  PEN  OR  PENCIL  SKETCHING. 

which  are  so  placed  as  to  cast  shadows.  These  in 
general  are  vertical  lines  on  the  right  side  of  sur- 
faces or  objects,  horizontal  lines  on  the  lower  side 
of  surfaces  or  objects,  and  diagonal  lines  interme- 
diate between.  A  somewhat  free  or  exaggerated 
use  of  these  lines  gives  a  certain  effect  to  a  poor 
sketch.  But  if  you  can  draw  correctly,  you  need  not 
use  them.  They  serve  to  conceal  defects,  and  this 
is  really  one  of  their  principal  uses. 

The  question  of  whether  you  should  practice  free- 
hand drawing  with  pencil  or  pen  comes  up,  some 
advising  the  use  of  a  pen,  because  you  must  then 
draw  rightly  from  the  start,  and  facility  of  erasure  or 
of  rubbing  out  afforded  by  the  use  of  the  pencil  is 
supposed  to  militate  against  correctness.  If  by  pen- 
work  the  art  of  drawing  correctly  from  the  first  line 
can  be  acquired,  the  pen  should  certainly  be  used. 

For  ink  you  may  use  common  ink,  but  good  effects 
are  not  so  easily  produced  with  it  as  with  India  ink. 
The  liquid  India  ink  and  a  lithographer's  pen  give 
a  chance  for  very  fine  effects,  but  it  takes  a  good 
draughtsman  to  fully  profit  by  them.  They  are 
hardly  to  be  recommended  for  practice,  as  they  are 
luxuries,  not  at  all  requisite  for  the  student. 

In  making  sketches  for  dimensions  to  be  quoted 
on,  it  is  a  good  rule  to  use  a  rather  large  scale — the 
drawing  should  not  be  cramped.  This  gives  plenty 
of  room  for  writing  in  the  dimensions,  and  allows 
one  to  note  the  smaller  features,  and  even  to  make 
memoranda  on  the  sketch. 


DESCRIPTIVE   GEOMETRY.  81 

Another  great  convenience  in  sketching  is  cross- 
ruled  paper.  Regular  profile  paper  is  expensive,  but 
cross-ruled  paper  can  be  bought  by  the  quire,  and  is 
almost  as  good  as  the  other.  If  the  lack  of  the  heavy 
tenth  lines  is  felt,  you  can  rule  off  every  tenth  line 
yourself.  But  in  most  general  drawing  the  absence 
of  the  heavy  tenth  lines  will  be  a  positive  advantage. 

If  you  care  to  take  up  descriptive  geometry,  which 
is  an  addition  that  well  may  be  made  to  our  recital 
of  branches  of  study,  you  will  learn  it  by  drawing 
the  problems  with  right-line  pen,  straight  edge,  tri- 
angle and  dividers,  which  will  not  only  teach  you 
descriptive  geometry,  but  give  excellent  practice  in 
drawing.  Every  architect  drawing  a  house,  or  me- 
chanical draughtsman  drawing  a  machine,  follows 
the  rules  of  descriptive  geometry,  whether  he  has 
studied  it  or  not,  often  without  knowing  it  even.  It 
is  quite  possible  that  he  may  have  never  heard  of  it, 
but  he  uses  it,  and  follows  its  laws  in  every  line 
which  he  makes. 

After  descriptive  geometry  come  shades  and 
shadows.  These  are  decidedly  a  refinement,  and  may 
be  left  as  an  accomplishment  to  be  worked  up  if 
time  permits.  The  same  may  be  said  of  perspective. 
Yet  one  ought  to  know  something  of  these  as  well. 
Both  are  simply  extensions  of,  or  rather  a  series  of 
special  problems  in,  descriptive  geometry.  They 
involve  the  determination  of  the  intersections  of 
planes  and  curved  surfaces  by  planes  and  curved 


82        SITTING  OR  STANDING-NIGHT  WORK. 

surfaces,  and  of  the  loci  of  tangency  to  curved  sur- 
faces of  planes  and  curved  surfaces.  They  embrace 
very  elegant  problems,  and  if  one  has  a  fancy  for 
graphics,  they  may  be  studied. 

If  the  student  wishes  to  practice  drawing,  he  can 
just  as  well  make  problems  in  descriptive  geometry, 
in  perspective  and  in  shades  and  shadows  afford  him 
models,  as  use  pictures  of  Ionic  capitals  and  of 
steam-engines  for  subjects.  One  trouble  he  may 
think  is  that  a  studying  up  of  the  problem  will  in 
each  case  be  involved,  but  that  will  be  rather  an  ad- 
vantage. Several  problems  may  be  well  learned 
before  being  drawn,  in  order  to  avoid  breaking  in 
upon  one's  work  at  the  board. 

While  drawing  is  usually  taught  in  the  standing 
position,  it  will  be  found  that  in  regular  draughting- 
rooms  high  stools  are  apt  to  make  their  appearance. 
It  is  maintained  by  many,  however,  that  standing  is 
far  healthier  than  sitting. 

If  possible,  do  not  draw  at  night.  Rise  at  five  in 
the  morning  in  summer  and  draw  before  breakfast ; 
work  late  in  the  afternoon  and  put  off  your  supper. 
It  will  not  hurt  you  to  eat  by  lamp-light.  But  do 
not  spoil  your  eyes  any  more  than  necessary.  You 
will  in  all  human  probability  do  them  lots  of  harm 
by  looking  at  strong  lights,  perhaps  at  arc  lights, 
though  you  know  it  is  a  most  reprehensible  prac- 
tice; so  do  not  start  in  to  abuse  them  by  drawing  at 
night.  If  you  must  do  so,  then  have  a  good  stu- 


BLUE-PRINT   PAPER. 


dent's  lamp  to  work  by,  use  a  paper  with  dull  or 
mat  surface,  and  place  the  lamp  so  that  the  angle  of 
reflection  will  not  bring  the  reflected  beam  straight 
to  your  eye. 

Blue-print  paper  is  a  very  convenient  adjunct  to 
the  drawing-room,  and  you  may  practice  with  it  a 
little.  Drawings  on  quite  thick  paper  may  be  copied 
on  blue-print  paper  if  there  is  good  sunlight.  Print- 
ing on  the  reverse  side  of  the  copy,  or  another 
drawing  or  cut  there,  of  course  renders  impossible 
the  use  of  blue-print  paper  for  copying  a  design  from 
such  paper. 

Get  a  few  points  from  a  regular  draughtsman  as 
regards  care  of  instruments,  and  the  keeping  of  the 
points  of  dividers  and  the  edges  of  right-line  pens 
sharpened.  Even  the  sharpening  of  pencils  and 
best  shape  to  give  their  points  may  be  looked  into. 
For  sharpening  the  lead  of  pencils  little  pads  of 
sand-paper  are  often  used,  but  the  writer's  favorite 
is  a  file. 

Conveniences  in  drawing  are  multiplying  every 
year.  Do  not  start  to  get  all  of  them.  You  need 
but  half  a  dozen  instruments,  and  a  large  expendi- 
ture for  a  collection,  whose  principal  value  is  in  a 
heavy  rosewood  box  strapped  with  brass  or  German 
silver,  cannot  be  recommended.  As  has  been  aptly 
noted,  experienced  draughtsmen  are  very  prone  to 
keep  their  instruments  in  segar  boxes.  Perhaps  they 
go  too  far  in  this  direction. 


84  CONVENTIONAL  REPRESENTATIONS. 

In  sketching  wiring  diagrams  for  houses,  or  for 
isolated  plants,  certain  things  have  to  be  repeatedly 
drawn.  Thus,  if  working  upon  such  isolated  plants, 
you  will  have  to  draw  a  great  many  times  over  con- 
ventional representations  of  a  dynamo  and  steam- 
engine.  In  each  case  a  number  of  lamps,  all  abso- 
lutely identical,  have  to  be  drawn,  and  there  are 
various  other  features  which  have  to  be  repeated 
often  in  such  work. 

For  each  of  these  it  is  well  to  adopt  a  fixed  symbol 
or  simple  little  drawing.  Do  not  lose  sight  of  effect- 
iveness or  neatness.  A  sheet  of  such  drawings  has 
been  published,  and  gives  an  idea  of  how  to  carry 
out  the  above  suggestion.  Do  not  use  any  care- 
lessly made  symbol,  or  it  may  involve  an  error. 

But  if  you  have  a  great  many  such  drawings  to 
make,  and  this  is  possible,  it  would  be  well  to  have 
some  rapid  way  of  making  them.  Little  stencils 
might  be  used,  or  if  one  is  an  adept  at  carving,  repre- 
sentations might  be  cut  out  of  wood  resembling 
type,  and  from  the  types  rubber  stamps  could  be 
made. 

It  is  well  to  get  acquainted  with  engineers  and  find 
what  conventional  symbols  or  drawings  they  use  for 
lamps  of  different  kinds,  for  direct  and  alternating 
current  dynamos  and  the  like.  Notice  also  how  the 
crossing  of  wires  without  contact  is  indicated  by  a 
little  loop  or  bend  on  one  of  the  wires.  After  you 
have  learned  something  about  drawing,  half  an  hour 


ACCURACY  OF  DETAIL.  85 

or  an  hour  with  an  electrical  draughtsman  will  give 
you  the  clue  to  these  special  features. 

In  trade  catalogues  and  electrical  books  will  be 
found  hints  for  drawing.  Thus  if  you  are  making  a 
large  scale  sketch  of  a  dynamo  or  motor,  you  will  get 
good  models  for  binding-posts  from  such  books. 
Other  details  are  given  in  profusion  in  catalogues 
and  are  excellent  for  practice.  Nothing  adds  more 
to  the  appearance  and  effectiveness  of  a  rough 
sketch  than  accuracy  of  detail,  or  at  least  an  evi- 
dence that  the  draughtsman  knew  what  he  was 
doing.  Such  evidence  will  be  given  by  the  binding- 
posts  being  of  the  latest  type,  by  switches  being  of 
accepted  model,  and  by  a  general  up-to-date  effect 
produced  by  attention  to  little  things. 

Under  engineering  in  this  book  it  is  stated  that 
attention  to  little  things  is  of  great  importance 
for  engineers.  The  same  is  to  be  said  for  everything 
in  science,  and  in  drawing  it  is  as  true  as  in  any 
other  branch.  Such  details  of  practice  as  those 
indicated  will  even  compensate  for  other  imperfec- 
tions in  drawing,  imperfections  due,  perhaps,  to  ab- 
sence of  artistic  talent. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

TEACHERS. 
PRACTICABILITY  OF  OBTAINING  ASSISTANCE  IN  STUDY 

— SOLVING  DIFFICULTIES— MAKING  EVERY  ONE 
A  TEACHER — UNIVERSITY  EXTENSION — SCHOOL 
COURSES  IN  SCIENCE — DIFFERENT  CLASSES  OF 
STUDENTS — THE  HARD  WORKERS  IN  THE  LAB- 
ORATORY— DIFFICULTY  OF  TEACHING  ELECTRIC- 
ITY. 

Is  a  teacher  necessary  for  the  branches  of  study 
required  of  the  electrician  ?  Can  the  limited  amount 
suggested  here  be  learned  at  home  and  alone  ? 

While  it  certainly  can,  it  is  none  the  less  true 
that  a  teacher  will  greatly  facilitate  matters.  An 
hour  every  two  or  three  days  even,  with  a  good 
teacher,  will  do  much  to  settle  the  difficulties  which 
will  present  themselves.  A  private  teacher  is  rather 
an  expensive  luxury,  and  one  which  comparatively 
few  can  afford.  But  it  must  be  that  within  the  range 
of  almost  every  one's  acquaintance  there  is  a  friend 
who  can  be  consulted.  Perhaps  it  is  a  school  princi- 
pal;  perhaps  a  man  studying  at  or  graduated  from 


LEARNING  WITHOUT  HELP.  87 

college.  In  reading  and  studying  a  subject  make 
notes  of  the  difficult  points  as  they  occur  to  you. 
The  next  day  try  to  solve  them  after  a  night's  sleep. 
This  will  doubtless  thin  the  list  down.  Then  attack 
your  friend  with  them.  The  fact  that  you  are  work- 
ing under  disadvantages  will  go  far  to  excite  a  special 
interest  in  you  and  in  your  work.  The  thinning  down 
process  will  cause  you  to  present  fewer  difficulties 
for  solution  than  otherwise  would  be  the  case,  and 
the  difficulties  will  be  good  ones.  Some  may  be  too 
much  for  your  adviser.  An  aspect  of  earnestness 
will  follow  from  all  this,  and  greater  willingness  to 
help  you  will  be  insured. 

At  least  it  may  be  the  result — but  it  may  not.  You 
may  find  yourself  assuming  the  dreadful  aspect  of 
a  bore.  Then  there  is  but  one  thing  to  be  done, 
study  alone.  Do  not  mind  how  old  you  are.  Alfieri, 
the  Italian  poet,  learned  Greek  after  he  was  fifty 
years  of  age.  Note  your  difficulties,  think  over  them 
day  by  day,  and  as  you  increase  the  list  at  one  end, 
it  will  certainly  be  reduced  day  by  day  at  the  other. 
Some  people  hold  that  they  can  learn  alone  anything 
which  they  can  learn  with  a  teacher.  There  is  no 
royal  road  to  knowledge;  there  are,  however,  some 
long  roads — very  long  ones, — and  the  teacherless  road 
is  apt  to  be  one  of  the  longest  of  all. 

An  arrangement  might  be  made  for  one  evening  a 
week,  just  to  smooth  over  the  worst  parts  of  your 
subjects.  This  would  be  better  than  nothing. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  EXTENSION. 


Make  every  one  your  teacher.  The  trolley-man 
and  the  electric-car  conductor  can  doubtless  give  you 
some  points  in  electricity.  Try  them,  and  see  if 
their  plain,  every-day  statements  of  the  little  they 
may  know  will  not  be  of  value.  Make  the  acquaint- 
ance of  the  engineer  at  the  electric  light  or  power 
station,  and  acquire  familiarity  with  volts  and  amperes, 
if  it  is  only  to  the  extent  of  letting  your  ears  receive 
the  words  from  another's  mouth. 

If  there  is  a  circulating  library  in  your  place  of 
residence,  the  librarian  may  be  able  to  help  you,  at 
least* in  the  selection  of  books.  But  the  work  of 
librarians  has  so  greatly  developed  in  these  days  of 
library  schools,  that  you  will  probably  not  find  them 
possessed  of  much  special  knowledge  of  science  as  a 
rule.  A  good  librarian  has  so  much  to  do  in  keeping 
up  with  the  requirements  of  the  profession,  that  his  or 
her  knowledge  of  science  is  apt  not  to  be  specialized. 

There  is  one  splendid  agent  of  instruction,  the 
University  Extension.  After  you  have  worked  your- 
self into  a  perfect  tangle  of  electrical  study,  and  feel 
almost  in  despair  (although  you  should  not),  attend 
a  ten  or  twenty  lecture  University  Extension  course 
in  electricity  and  see  how  your  troubles  will  vanish. 
After  each  lecture  the  professor  in  these  courses  gives 
a  conference  to  those  members  of  his  audience  who 
desire  it.  Your  first  questions  will  show  that  you 
have  been  studying,  and  his  interest  in  you  will  at 
once  be  excited.  Without  monopolizing  him,  follow 


SCIENCE  COURSES  AT  SCHOOL.  89 

up  the  advantage,  and  try  to  keep  him  as  a  friend  and 
adviser.  At  first  do  not  present  your  hard  points 
for  solution.  See  if  his  lectures  are  not  going  to  clear 
them  away.  Towards  the  end  of  the  course  you  may 
present  any  that  remain,  and  he  will  gladly  help  you 
out  of  your  trouble. 

The  value  of  a  course  of  University  Extension 
lectures  cannot  be  overestimated  in  such  cases. 
They  will  supply  the  missing  element,  and  do  much  to 
put  the  home-student  on  a  level  with  the  college  man. 
All  subjects  may  be  treated  in  University  Extension, 
and  the  subjects  are  determined  by  the  directors  of 
the  course.  Often  a  very  little  will  turn  the  scale  in 
favor  of  one  or  the  other  subject,  so  there*  may  be  no 
difficulty  in  getting  an  electrical  course  selected. 

This  little  book  will  doubtless  be  read  by  some  who 
are  still  at  school.  It  may  be  possible  for  such  to 
arrange  with  the  principal  to  have  a  little  extra  science 
and  mathematics.  He  will  judge  whether  or  not  it  is 
deserved,  and  whether  it  will  be  profitable  or  not.  The 
tendency  of  advanced  educators  is  to  give  more 
attention  to  science  than  formerly,  and  it  is  being 
made  a  feature  in  many  schools.  Where  it  is  so,  one 
thing  is  to  be  noticed — the  way  in  which  different 
pupils  will  take  to  it.  Some  like  it  as  a  novelty  only, 
and  after  a  few  lessons  work  at  it  listlessly  enough. 
Such  present  little  evidence  of  fitness  for  professional 
life.  Others  are  interested  in  it  throughout — a  good 
sign.  To  others  it  seems  a  little  disappointing. 


90  THE  SLOW   HARD  WORKERS. 

Chemistry  in  the  laboratory  loses,  perhaps,  the  gla- 
mour it  had  before  closer  acquaintance  with  it.  But 
these  last  we  will  suppose  to  have  determination  and  to 
be  determined  to  grapple  with  the  subject  despite  its 
dryness.  Pretty  soon  the  dryness  begins  to  disappear. 
If  it  is  chemistry,  they  commence  by  keeping  model 
note-books,  with  sketches  of  the  apparatus,  where 
anything  special  is  employed.  Reactions  are  all 
worked  out  and  chemical  equations  written  down. 
Perhaps  the  proportions  of  re-agents  in  the  equations 
are  calculated.  For  these  chemistry  takes  a  new 
meaning,  and  the  third  class,  the  slow,  hard  workers, 
give  the  best  pledge  of  any  for  future  success. 

In  a  school  with  active  principal  and  teachers 
one  good  student  might  often  be  able  to  bring  about 
the  introduction  of  a  science  course  and  of  laboratory 
work.  The  teachers,  if  not  advanced  in  practical 
science,  would  be,  or  should  be,  glad  of  the  chance  to 
work  it  up. 

There  is  this  also  to  be  said:  While  a  good  teacher 
of  any  branch  is  rather  hard  to  find,  a  good  teacher 
of  electricity  is  especially  so.  Where  the  very  basis 
of  a  science  is  as  uncertain  as  is  that  of  electricity, 
where  a  whole  superstructure  is  devoted  to  the  phe- 
nomena of  something  so  mysterious  that  it  has  not  been 
and  may  never  be  defined — for  there  is  every  prob- 
ability that  mankind  will  never  know  what  it  is  that 
drives  the  electric  car,  whispers  a  message  across 
the  ocean,  carries  articulations  of  speech  from  New 


THE  GOOD  TEACHER.  91 

York  to  Chicago,  splits  trees  and  fuses  quartz  into 
fulgurites, — when  the  best  attempts  at  a  theory  of 
electricity  are  based  on  the  purely  hypothetical  ether, 
it  must  be  hard  to  teach  the  subject.  For  a  teacher 
must  know  far  more  than  he  teaches ;  he  must  un- 
derstand within  the  limits  of  his  teaching  just  where 
the  weak  spots  in  the  theory  are  ;  he  must  know 
where  a  student  will  find  special  difficulty  in  under- 
standing ;  he  must  not  let  a  student  go  off  thinking 
he  understands  where  he  does  not. 

A  teacher  must  be  the  product  of  experience  in 
general  and  experience  in  particular.  This  means 
that  he  must  know  the  general  principles  of  teaching, 
and  must  have  special  knowledge  of  the  subject  he 
is  engaged  on.  Such  a  one  is  not  easy  to  find.  When 
such  is  met  he  is  a  treasure  to  the  student,  and  from 
his  very  nature  will  appreciate  an  ambitious  or  hard- 
working learner. 

The  above  summary  goes  to  show  that  he  who  is 
his  own  teacher,  when  he  could  get  another,  is  like 
the  man  who  is  his  own  lawyer.  The  latter,  it  is  said, 
has  a  fool  for  a  client.  The  application  is  obvious. 


92 


CHAPTER    IX. 
ELECTRICAL  FACTORY  WORK  FOR  STUDENTS. 

UTILITY  OF   FACTORY   WORK    FOR  STUDENTS WHO 

WOULD    BE    MOST   BENEFITED USELESSNESS   OF 

SOME  POSITIONS — SMALL   AND   LARGE   WORKS 

PREMIUMS  PAID  FOR  POSITIONS  IN   FACTORIES 

TIME  EXPENDED  IN  FACTORY  WORK  BY  STUDENTS 
SCHEDULES  OF  COURSES. 

The  question  of  whether  it  pays  to  enter  an  elec- 
trical factory  and  work  upon  dynamos  and  the  other 
products  is  one  that  can  be  answered  in  several 
ways.  The  answer  will  depend  on  who  the  person  is, 
and  under  what  auspices  he  enters  the  establishment. 

If  the  man  is  quite  ignorant  of  machinery  and  tools, 
then  the  sooner  he  enters  some  kind  or  any  kind  of 
a  shop  the  better.  For  nothing  is  more  forlorn  than 
a  purely  theoretical  engineer.  He  should  above  all 
things  know  the  limitations  of  tools,  how  to  use  them, 
and  how  to  direct  others  in  their  use.  Thus  in  many 
cases  the  prize  man  from  a  college  can  do  nothing 
more  beneficial  to  himself  than  going  into  an  elec- 
trical factory  as  a  temporary  apprentice. 


VALUE  OF  PRACTICAL  EXPERIENCE.  93 

It  is  to  be  presumed  that  many  of  the  readers  of 
this  book  wifl  be  skilled  mechanics,  many  will  be 
good  amateur  mechanics,  and  all  others  to  whom 
it  will  be  of  any  good  will  have  a  taste  for  the  same 
art.  The  propriety  of  going  to  work  will  vary  evi- 
dently for  each  of  such  classes,  and  for  each  individ- 
ual of  each  class.  Every  one  must  judge  for  himself 
as  far  as  general  mechanics  are  concerned. 

The  non-educated,  book-learned  person,  who  does 
not  understand  anything  about  tools,  evidently  needs 
a  machine-shop  training  worse  than  the  one  whom  he 
may  call  uneducated,  but  who  knows  what  his  hands 
and  arms  are  good  for.  It  is  useless  to  try  to  distin- 
guish between  the  numerous  degrees  of  proficiency 
in  mechanics. 

There  is  no  question  that  some  time  may  be  bene- 
ficially given  to  an  apprenticeship,  as  it  may  be  termed, 
in  an  electrical  factory.  If  it  is  possible,  by  any 
means,  to  go  to  one,  and  to  work  a  little  while  in  each 
of  the  different  departments,  or  even  in  a  few  of  the 
more  important,  then  the  experience  would  be  of  the 
utmost  value,  and  of  the  most  value  to  the  man  best 
prepared  to  profit  by  it.  The  skilled  machinist  would 
profit  the  quickest — the  college  student  probably  the 
most  in  the  long  run. 

But  as  to  whether  it  pays  a  young  man  to  go  in  as 
a  common  workman  in  a  large  factory  simply  because 
it  is  an  electrical  one,  and  spend  his  day  on  one  single 
thing,  such  as  cutting  washers,  there  can  be  little 


94          DIFFICULTY  OF  FINDING  POSITIONS. 

doubt.  He  will  learn  no  electrical  engineering  by  doing 
this.  It  would  be  advisable  for  him  to  accept  such  a 
position  only  if  there  were  a  chance  of  advance- 
ment, but  such  there  probably  will  not  be. 

In  a  small  works  there  would  be  more  chance.  If 
everything  is  done  in  one  or  two  rooms,  then  all  is 
under  one's  eyes.  A  workman  in  such  a  place  may 
be  called  upon  to  turn  his  hand  to  anything,  and  will 
have  a  chance  to  pick  up  much  more  than  in  the 
highly  specialized  system  of  the  large  factory. 

One  thing  is  certain.  Without  paying  for  the  priv- 
ilege, it  will  be  very  hard  to  obtain  an  entrance  into 
the  electrical  factory.  They  are  now  besieged  by 
young  men,  willing  to  make  every  kind  of  promise,  if 
they  will  be  only  admitted  to  the  desired  precincts. 
Some  of  them,  many  of  them,  are  of  the  highest 
promise,  and  would  be  of  real  value  to  any  works 
employing  them.  But  there  is  no  room  for  the  appli- 
cants, so  it  is  very  hard  to  get  in.  This  may  remove 
part  of  the  difficulty,  for  it  is  possible  that  you  will  not 
be  able  to  enter  at  all.  It  removes  the  difficulty  of 
selecting  what  department  to  work  in,  for  if  you  are 
admitted  at  all,  there  will  be  no  choice  for  you;  you 
must  take  any  position  assigned. 

For  those .  who  are  willing  to  pay  a  premium 
positions  at  nominal  pay  can  be  obtained  at  electrical 
factories.  The  Thompson-Houston  factory  at  Lynn, 
Mass.,  and  the  Edison  factory  at  Schenectady,  New 
York,  have  offered  to  do  this,  and  doubtless  other 
works  will  be  willing  to  follow  their  lead.  The  ex- 


TIMS   REQUIRED   IN  REGULAR  COURSES.      95 

penditure  of  the  premium  is  compensated  for  in  part, 
in  the  case  of  the  two  works  named,  by  the  payment 
of  nominal  wages  to  the  students  whom  they  employ. 
Thus  the  premium  is  gradually  recouped. 

The  time  required  in  these  courses  is  a  serious 
thing.  A  whole  year  is  supposed  to  be  required  for 
a  college  graduate,  and  more  for  one  less  advanced. 
The  course  once  finished,  the  student  has  no  claim 
upon  the  factory,  and  must  hold  himself  prepared  to 
find  a  position  elsewhere. 

The  schedule  of  the  courses  supplied  by  these  two 
works  is  given  as  examples  of  carefully  selected  out- 
lines of  student  work.  It  will  be  seen  that  a  quantity 
of  ground  is  covered,  and  the  demonstration  is  afford- 
ed of  how  much  there  is  to  learn  inside  of  a  great 
works. 

The  ideal  education  in  electricity  would  seem  to 
include  such  a  course.  The  unsatisfactory  part  of  it 
is  that  a  year  is  spent  in  perfecting  one's  self  in  details 
of  engineering  which  may  eventually  not  be  used,  al- 
though they  will  always  directly  or  indirectly  be  useful. 

For  one  who  is  dependent  on  himself  for  his  living 
the  more  ideal  thing  would  be  to  start  in  some  smaller 
works  in  any  capacity,  in  the  hope  of  working  up. 
To  such  a  one  the  long  course  of  one  or  more  years 
at  the  Thompson-Houston  or  Edison  works  is  out  of 
the  question.  If  he  can  only  obtain  a  position  of 
any  kind  at  bare  living  wages,  and  one  which  leads 
to  promotion,  he  will  thus  get  his  best  and  most 
available  apprenticeship. 


96  STUDENTS'   COURSES  IN  FACTORIES. 

Schedules  of  Students'  Courses  in  Electrical  Engi- 
neering at  the  Works  of  the  General  Electric 
Company. 

LYNN,  MASS.,  WORKS. 
KIND  OF  WORK.  WEEKS. 

SHOP   PLANT. 

1.  Wiring 4 

2 .  Shop  motors 4 

ARC    DEPARTMENT. 

1.  Arc  lamp  assembling 2 

2.  Arc  lamp  testing 4 

3.  Arc  machine  assembling  and  testing 5 

INCANDESCENT  DEPARTMENT,  DIRECT. 

1.  Incandescent  machine  assembling  and  testing,  4 

2.  Meters 2 

3.  Winding  armatures 4 

STATIONARY  MOTORS  AND  GENERATORS. 

1.  Assembling  and  testing  4 

2.  Railway  and  large  generators 5 

ALTERNATING  SYSTEM. 

1.  Machine  assembling  and  testing 5 

2.  Construction  transformers I 

3.  Testing  transformers   i 

4.  Testing  mining  drills  and  apparatus 2 

Railway  motor  testing 3 

Blacksmith  shop 2 


STUDENTS'   COURSES  IN  FACTORIES.  97 

SCHENECTADY,  N.  Y.,  WORKS. 

KIND  OF  WORK.  WEEKS. 

ERECTING  DEPARTMENT. 

Assembling  railway  motors 2 

Assembling  small  dynamos  I 

Assembling  large  dynamos     . I 

Winding  field  magnets  3 

Pillow  block  fitting,  etc I 

TUBE   DEPARTMENT. 

Galvanometer  work,  testing  instruments,  etc 2 

WIRE    DEPARTMENT. 

Conductivity  measurements 2 

Testing  multipolar  armatures 2 

ARMATURE   DEPARTMENT. 

Winding  and  connecting  armatures, Gramme  ring.  3 

Winding  and  connecting  armatures,  drum 3 

Testing  armatures 2 

MOTOR  DEPARTMENT. 

Railway  motors 3 

Small  stationary  motors  and  generators 3 

EDISON  TESTING   DEPARTMENT. 

Testing  large  motors  and  generators .  .4 

Use  of  instruments  and  general  testing 4 

F.  &  A.  DEPARTMENT. 

General  machine  work 2 

Testing  small  motors,  meter  magnets,  calibrating 

ammeters,   etc 4 

Commutator  work 2 

Shop  Wiring  and  power  station 4 

CABLE  DEPARTMENT. 

Testing  insulation,  etc 4 

52 

Students  are  allowed  to  take  only  one  of  these 
courses,  and  are  paid  a  very  small  salary,  which 
increases  during  the  year.  At  the  end  of  the  year  no 
obligation  to  retain  them  is  imposed  on  the  company. 
A  premium  is  also  required,  and  only  a  limited 
number  of  students  are  received. 


CHAPTER  X. 
COLLEGE  EDUCATION. 

COLLEGES   DISADVANTAGES     AND     ADVANTAGES 

OF     A     COLLEGE     COURSE  SCHOLARSHIPS  

TUTORSHIPS  LARGE  AND   SMALL  COLLEGES  — 

APPARATUS ELECTRICAL  COURSE  STUDIES. 

It  seems  unnecessary  to  consider  the  question 
of  whether  a  prospective  electrician  should  go  to  col- 
lege. If  possible,  he  should  do  so,  and  after  graduat- 
ing should,  if  able  to  do  so,  remain  at  the  college  and 
take  a  post-graduate  course.  But  this  work  is  written 
principally  for  those  who  do  not  have  the  inestim- 
able advantage  of  attending  a  college  course.  A  col- 
lege man  generally  knows  far  more  on  the  day  of  his 
graduation  than  ever  afterwards.  For  such  as  they 
advice  is  not  needed,  or  rather  is  useless,  because  it 
would  not  be  considered. 

If  a  young  man  wishes  to  go  to  college,  he  will 
have  to  give  up  to  it  three  or  four  years,  perhaps, 
without  making  anything.  Something  may  be  earned 
by  a  bright  man  at  college  by  coaching  other  stu- 
dents, acting  as  private  tutor  to  prepare  them  for 
their  examinations.  As  a  man  advances  higher  the 


COLLEGE  PROSPECTS.  101 

prospects  of  obtaining  such  work  increase,  and  it 
may  become  quite  remunerative.  Sometimes,  too, 
there  is  a  little  literary  work  which  can  be  done,  not 
in  connection  with  the  college,  but  for  some  paper  or 
publishing  house. 

All  this  is  very  desultory,  and  any  success  in  earn- 
ing money  will  depend  on  very  hard  work.  And  the 
same  is  apt  to  be  the  case  also  with  the  graduates,  or 
at  least  with  such  of  them  as  have  no  places  open 
and  ready  to  be  stepped  into. 

The  college  course  leads  to  several  incidental  ad- 
vantages. A  good  man  may  obtain  a  scholar- 
ship, and  be  invited  to  continue  his  studies  and  to 
receive  also  a  small  but  appreciable  honorarium  or 
salary  while  doing  so. 

A  college  course  also  opens  up  the  avenue  to  teach- 
ers' work.  A  graduate  who  passes  the  course  with 
honor  may  become  connected  as  tutor  with  his  own  or 
with  some  other  college.  However  low  the  position, 
it  is  at  least  the  beginning  of  a  career  which  may 
lead  to  a  professorship.  In  some  cases,  where  direct 
connection  with  the  college  cannot  be  brought  about, 
private  tuition,  such  as  already  spoken  of,  can  be 
given  at  high  rates  by  the  known  successful  gradu- 
ate. 

What  college  to  go  to  may  be  settled  largely  by 
the  question  of  locality.  In  all  parts  of  the  country 
are  colleges  at  which  courses  in  mechanical  and  elec- 
trical engineering  can  be  taken,  and  the  largest  and 


102  CHOICE  OF  COLLEGE. 

most  richly  endowed  are  by  no  means  the  only 
ones  worth  attending.  The  greater  chance  for  per- 
sonal attention  on  the  part  of  professors  in  the  small 
institution  may  overbalance  the  larger  plant  and 
more  expensive  apparatus  of  the  other. 

There  is  no  end  to  accumulating  apparatus, — a  col- 
lege may  get  infected  by  the  same  desire  sometimes 
seen  in  adults  for  collecting  apparatus  of  the  most 
varied  description.  But  better  work  is  often  done 
with  the  meager  supplies  of  a  small  college  or  private 
laboratory  than  in  the  princely  laboratory  of  a  great 
university. 

Very  fine  and  expensive  apparatus  is  needed  for 
work  in  original  investigation.  This  class  of  work  is 
not  supposed  to  be  performed  by  students.  So,  as  far 
as  non-graduates  are  concerned,  the  elaborate  appa- 
ratus is  not  needed  at  all;  simpler  appliances  answer- 
ing every  purpose  for  them. 

A  part  of  the  course  in  electricity,  and  a  principal 
part  of  it,  is  comprised  under  mechanical  engineer- 
ing. Great  tangent  galvanometers  and  the  like  are 
but  incidents  of  the  course,  for  the  work  in  mechan- 
ics is  one  of  the  most  important  things  taught,  and 
for  it  the  luxury  of  apparatus  is  not  needed.  The 
practical  portion  of  mechanics,  namely  machine-shop 
work,  is,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  within  the  scope  and 
talents  of  readers  of  this  book  to  a  greater  degree 
than  in  the  case  of  many  or  most  college  students. 

All  this  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  you  need  not 
mourn  if  you  cannot  take  a  college  course,  and  espe- 


TESTING  ROOM,  CORNELL  UNIVERSITY. 


THE  COURSE  IN  ELECTRICITY.  105 

cially  need  not  be  troubled  if  you  have  to  go  to  some 
small  college  instead  of  to  Cornell,  Harvard  or  Co- 
lumbia. 

At  Cornell  University  the  course  in  electrical  en- 
gineering for  the  first  three  years  is  identical  with 
that  in  mechanical  engineering.  It  is  expressly 
stated  that  "none  should  apply  for  it  unless  strong 
in  both  mathematics,  pure  and  applied,  and  in  phys- 
ics." It  is  fair  to  say  that  physics  is  really  lit- 
tle more  than  applied  mathematics.  After  three 
years'  study  in  such  branches  as  chemistry,  physics, 
mathematics,  work  in  the  machine-shop  and  in  the 
physical  laboratory,  a  portion  of  the  work  of  the  con- 
cluding year  is  devoted  to  electrical  engineering, 
tests  of  efficiency  of  dynamos  and  motors,  photom- 
etry, and  tests  of  telegraphic  instruments,  lines  and 
cables.  This  does  not  suggest  any  great  amount  of 
work  in  electricity,  pure  and  simple. 

The  mere  summary  of  the  electrical  apparatus  of 
Cornell  University  would  fill  a  number  of  these  pages, 
it  is  so  extensive.  Dynamos,  motors,  storage  batter- 
ies, lamps,  measuring  instruments,  authorized  cop- 
ies of  standards,  are  there  in  great  variety  and  pro- 
fusion. A  competent  man  could  spend  many  months 
in  interesting  work  under  the  facilities  such  a  plant 
provides.  Yet  the  under-graduate  will  find  that  his 
part  among  all  these  riches  will  be  a  comparatively 
small  one,  for  his  operations  can  be  conducted  with 
simpler  appliances  and  without  any  reference  to  the 
prize  pieces  of  the  great  collection. 


106          DISPENSING  WITH  THE  COLLEGE. 

If  circumstances  prevent  you  from  entering  one  of 
the  great  universities,  console  yourself  with  the  feel- 
ing that  nothing  is  more  mortifying  than  to  spend 
four  years  at  a  university  and  on  graduation  to  find 
no  place  open  for  you.  The  long  struggle  which  the 
self-made  electrical  engineer  may  go  through  will  be- 
gin earlier,  and,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will  be  sooner  over. 
All  of  which  is  some  comfort  for  the  army  of  eager 
workers  who,  with  insufficient  means,  insufficient  fa- 
cilities and  insufficient  education,  are  striving  for 
the  goal  in  competition  with  the  sons  of  the  rich, 
who  are  educated  up  to  the  highest  pitch,  provided 
they  do  not  expend  their  talents  on  cribbing  their 
way  through  college. 


107 


CHAPTER  XI. 

STEAM  ENGINEERING. 

WASTED    POWERS    OF    NATURE WASTEFULNESS    OF 

COAL POOR  ECONOMY  OF   THE  STEAM-ENGINE 

COAL    CONSUMPTION     OF    A     STATION UNFAIR 

RECORDS ERRORS  IN  STATEMENTS — FADS EN- 
GINES OF  DIFFERENT  TYPES — REVOLUTIONS  IN 
ENGINEERING — STEAM  ENGINEERING  A  SPECIAL 

STUDY. 

Steam  engineering  is  the  epitome  of  the  station  en- 
gineer's acquirements.  If  he  is  only  a  first-class  steam 
engineer,  and  there  are  comparatively  few  of  them, 
he  is  nine-tenths  qualified  to  conduct  a  station. 
There  is  nowhere  to  be  found,  except  on  steamships 
or  in  cable  traction  plants,  an  instance  where  steam 
and  heat  play  a  more  important  part  than  in  an 
electric  power  or  light  generating  plant. 

For,  unfortunately,  we  still  have  to  see  the  force 
of  gravity  actuating  millions  of  horse-power  of  poten- 
tial energy  upon  this  earth  every  twenty-four  hours 
without  our  utilizing  any  of  it  directly, — we  know  that 
the  thermic  conditions  of  the  natural  world  bring 
about  kinetic  energy  which,  utilized,  could  sweep 


108  UNUTILIZED  NATURAL  POWERS. 

the  steam-engine  out  of  existence,  when  we  realize 
that  the  succession  of  night  and  day  or  of  summer 
and  winter  are  sources  of  energy  before  which  the 
coal-mines  of  the  earth  fade  into  insignificance, — 
we  know  that  it  is  conceivable  that  the  difference 
in  velocity  of  the  earth's  equatorial  and  polar  regions 
may  be  utilized  by  succeeding  generations  to  do  their 
work.  But  we  have  to  be  content  with  knowing  that 
our  forefathers  proportionately  used  the  tides  and  the 
winds  to  a  much  greater  extent  than  we  do,  and, 
bowing  to  our  destiny,  we  dig  up  coal  and  place  it  on 
the  surface  of  the  earth  at  after  all  a  very  cheap  rate, 
pulverize  and  screen  out  of  it,  and  so  waste,  a  great 
proportion,  and  then  by  rail  and  vessel  send  what  is  left 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  miles  at  great  expense,  to 
be  burned  up  under  a  boiler,  and  to  have  utilized,  per- 
haps, one  per  cent.,  or,  by  a  great  triumph  of  engineer- 
ing, as  much  as  ten  per  cent,  of  its  energy.  Then 
when  the  energy  which  its  carbon  represents  in  be- 
ing uncombined  with  oxygen  is  gone,  and  it  is  burned, 
we  find  plant  life  undoing  our  wasteful  work  and 
gradually  separating  the  carbon  and  oxygen  again. 
But  this  separation  is  so  slow  that,  as  far  as  econom- 
ics are  concerned,  it  might  almost  as  well  not  take 
place  at  all.  For  our  healths  this  separation  may  be 
very  important — it  is  hard  to  say  how  much  or  how 
little. 

The  steam-engine  is  a  dreadfully  crude  affair.  Every 
electrician  gloats  over  his  dynamos  add  motors  with 


THE  STEAM-ENGINE.  109 

returns  of  ninety  per  cent,  and  upwards.  He  is 
troubled  by  no  second  law  of  thermo-dynamics,  ex- 
cept for  thermopiles,  which  are  accordingly  rejected 
in  practice.  All  is  clear  sailing  for  him,  except  that, 
having  built  a  dynamo  of  ninety- eight  per  cent,  effi- 
ciency, he  has  at  one  fell  swoop  to  lose  ninety  per  cent, 
of  its  efficiency,  because  he  has  to  turn  the  armature, 
and  a  steam-engine  is  the  most  generally  available 
means  for  doing  this.  The  steam-engine  undoes  his 
economies. 

Everything  in  a  station  hinges  on  consumption  of 
coal.  It  is  a  question,  as  already  intimated,  of  how 
many  pounds  of  coal  per  hour  must  be  burned  to 
keep  a  little  filament  of  carbon  at  a  white  heat. 
Sixty  inches  of  such  filament  gives  a  rough  gauge  of 
a  horse-power.  It  will  make  a  great  difference  in  div- 
idends if  one  and  a  half  pounds  do  it,  or  if  ten  pounds 
have  to  be  burned  each  hour  to  keep  up  the  supply 
of  energy  for  these  few  inches  of  ignited  carbon 
filament. 

Considering  then  the  station  as  a  contrivance  for 
converting  chemical  potential  energy  into  electric 
kinetic  energy,  its  successful  running  consists  merely 
in  developing  the  highest  possible  efficiency  in  the 
conversion.  Unfortunately  the  conversion  involves 
a  number  of  steps,  each  one  with  its  own  loss,  so  that 
a  very  small  amount  indeed  of  the  total  chemical  en- 
ergy is  utilized.  It  does  seem  a  pity  that  after  coal 
has  been  mined  and  transported  hundreds  of  miles 


110  REAL  ECONOMY  IN  STATIONS. 

we  only  get,  as  just  said,  a  few  per  cent,  of  its  poten- 
tial good  out  of  it.  So,  if  you  have  to  run  a  station, 
concentrate  your  ideas  on  real  economy.  Figure  out 
every  day  the  efficiency  in  practical  engineering 
units  of  each  of  the  appliances  from  boiler  to  dynamo, 
and  thus  keep  a  watch  over  the  whole.  A  waste 
located  is  half-cured. 

Real  economy  is  the  goal,  not  book-keeping  econ- 
omy. By  proper  or  rather  improper  systems  of  rec- 
ords the  books  can  be  made  to  show  much  higher 
figures  than  are  actually  obtained.  Thus  suppose  a 
superintendent  is  proud  of  his  boilers.  He  weighs 
the  coal,  weighs  the  ashes,  and  measures  the  water. 
The  weight  of  the  ashes  is  subtracted  from  the  coal. 
But  as  the  ashes  are  raked  out  wet  from  the  ash-pans 
and  are  weighed  wet,  the  coal  is  favored  to  the  ex- 
tent of  the  water.  The  latter  of  course  figures  as 
ashes,  and  is  subtracted  along  with  the  weight  of  the 
true  ashes  from  the  coal  to  get  the  carbon. 

This  is  a  small  matter,  but  it  is  an  error  ;  it  favors 
the  boilers,  and,  in  conjunction  with  the  system  of  wet 
ash-pans,  it  accumulates  error.  All  the  water  evapo- 
rated in  the  ash-pans  is  uselessly  evaporated;  all  re- 
moved with  the  ashes  is  wasted, — and  on  the  books 
all  this  may  be  credited  to  the  work  of  the  boiler. 

Jf.  chemical  determination  is  executed  sometimes 
within  a  few  hundredths  of  one  per  cent.  One-tenth 
of  a  per  cent,  is  good  work.  One-tenth  of  a  per  cent, 
of  a  ton  of  coal  is  2^  Ibs.  about.  Far  more  than 


ERRORS  IN  SYSTEMS  OF   REPORTS.          Ill 

that  amount  may  be  weighed  with  the  ashes  of  a  ton 
of  coal.  A  station  constructed  for  accurate  working 
should  not  be  subject  to  such  errors  as  this,  and  the 
carbon  burned  should  be  known  within  a  fraction  of 
a  per  cent. 

The  above  is  only  given  as  an  example  of  how  an 
error  may  creep  in.  An  obvious  way  to  correct  it 
would  be  to  make  an  allowance  for  the  water  ab- 
sorbed by  the  ashes.  This  could  be  determined  accu- 
rately on  a  sample  every  now  and  then,  and  the  tare 
thus  obtained  could  be  employed  for  a  month  at  a 
time.  The  error  is  also  an  example  of  a  te.mptation, 
for  it  increases  the  recorded  efficiency  of  the  boilers. 
It  is  an  example  of  "doctoring"  the  record.  If  a 
chemist  works  to  within  a  fraction  of  a  per  cent., 
using  only  a  gram  of  substance,  an  equal  accuracy  at 
least  should  be  obtained  where  hundreds  of  tons  are 
operated  on. 

There  are  fads  in  everything,  and  if  a  superintend- 
ent's fad  applies  to  the  engines,  the  above  "doctoring" 
will  probably  not  please  him.  It  will  be  against 
the  engines.  This  suggests  another  reason  why  the 
utmost  accuracy  should  be  adhered  to.  An  unfair 
figure  in  favor  of  one  step  tells  against  the  other 
steps,  and  is  robbing  Peter  to  pay  Paul. 

Do  not,  therefore,  yield  to  fads.  Faith  need  not  be 
placed  in  a  single  kind  of  boiler,  when  there  are  pos- 
sibly others  as  good  or  better.  Do  not  acquire  the 
idea  that  only  one  kind  of  high-speed  engine  will  run 


112  PREJUDICES. 


a  dynamo  rightly,  when  in  a  neighboring  city  some 
other  plant  may  be  doing  better  work  with  a  low-speed 
engine  than  you  can  do  with  a  high-speed  one. 

One  very  common  infirmity  of  engineers  is  connect- 
ed with  compound,  triple  and  quadruple  expansion 
engines.  They  are  apt  to  imagine  that  the  ne  plus 
ultra  of  economy  inheres  in  some  one  of  these  types 
of  engines.  Yet  it  is  hardly  going  too  far  to  say  that 
nine  out  of  ten  engineers  would  be  unable  to  say  why 
a  compound  engine  is  more  economical  than  a  single 
one. 

It  is  therefore  dangerous  to  allow  one's  self  to  be 
carried  away  by  overenthusiasm.  Revolutionary 
devices  in  engineering  are  not  frequent.  One  is 
fortunate  and  probably  long-lived  who  sees  the  ad- 
vent and  success  of  a  single  great  improvement 
which  is  itself  destined  to  endure.  The  present 
generation  has  seen  revolutions  brought  about  by 
electricity,  but  the  reference  is  to  engineering  in 
general — not  to  the  Jin  de  siecle  miracle  which  elec- 
tricity has  shown  itself.  A  revolution  is  to  be  looked 
for  any  time  from  its  more  extended  applications. 

You  must  make  steam  engineering  a  very  special 
study.  Carnot's  cycle,  the  Carnot  diagram,  the  laws 
of  thermo-dynamics,  the  laws  affecting  the  econom- 
ical expansion  of  steam  in  an  engine  cylinder  must 
be  familiar.  From  these  more  basic  subjects  the 
descent  must  be  made  to  subjects  of  minor  significance 
yet  of  no  less  importance.  These  affect  the  motion 


IMPROPER  PRACTICES.  113 

of  steam  in  pipes,  the  loss  in  its  energy  due  to 
cooling  in  such  pipes,  the  evils  of  throttling,  the  proper 
use  of  lubricants,  even  the  proper  packing  of  a  steam- 
engine  is  a  subject  to  be  studied.  Sometimes  with 
hammer  and  a  calking-iron,  perhaps  with  an  old 
cold  chisel,  or,  if  mercifully  disposed,  with  a  stick  of 
wood  an  engineer  will  jam  packing  into  a  stuffing- 
box  on  a  cylinder  head,  and  will  then  with  spanner 
set  up  the  gland  in  the  effort  to  get  the  place  steam- 
tight.  Before  he  stops  he  is  sure  to  get  it  very  tight 
indeed,  in  one  sense — tight  for  the  piston-rod,  which 
has  to  fly  in  and  out  many  times  a  minute.  Power 
is  wasted  in  such  practices.  Energy  is  required  to 
overcome  the  friction  incident  to  such  packing. 
After  a  while  the  piston-rod  perhaps  begins  to  score, 
and  then  the  packing  is  harder  to  manage  than  ever. 
So  all  through  the  list  there  are  endless  details  to 
be  understood.  Many  will  be  acquired  by  observa- 
tion. Never  go  through  an  engineering  establish- 
ment without  learning  something  new.  It  may  only 
be  the  way  of  lining  up  an  engine,  or  some  trick  in 
connection  with  the  journal  boxes,  or  crank-pin  lu- 
brication,— whatever  it  is,  it  is  worth  learning,  if  only 
for  comparison.  A  good  observer  has  great  advan- 
tages in  acquiring  information  in  this  way. 


114 


CHAPTER  XII. 
THE  MANUFACTURING  ENGINEER. 

DIFFERENT  WORK  DONE  IN  FACTORIES — DYNAMO 
AND  MOTOR  BUILDING — IMPROVEMENTS  IN  DE- 
SIGN—  FAULTS  OF  CHEAP  MOTORS IMPROVING 

THE  MAGNETIC  CIRCUIT SMALL  FACTORIES- 
BAD  INSTALLATION  OF  GOOD  MACHINERY — MAK- 
ING PARTS  FOR  DISTRIBUTION  OF  ELECTRIC 

POWER METERS  AND    THEIR    DEFECTS TESTING 

MATERIALS. 

The  construction  of  machinery  is  one  branch  of 
electrical  engineering.  From  the  great  factory  where 
generators  of  hundreds  of  kilowatts  capacity  are 
turned  out  day  after  day  to  the  one  or  two  room 
work-shops  where  a  few  men  find  occupation 
in  manufacturing  condensers  or  some  similar  ap- 
pliance— from  the  telegraph  instrument  makers' 
where  little  bits  of  brass  and  steel  are  worked 
up  by  the  thousands  into  keys,  sounders  and 
switches  to  the  model  maker  who  busies  himself  with 
special  apparatus  only — from  one  extreme  to  the 
other  a  very  wide  and  diversified  field  is  passed  over. 


FACTORIES  OF  DIFFERENT  CLASSES.          115 

Thus  when  we  speak  of  an  electrician  manufacturing 
electrical  machinery  we  may  refer  to  the  superintend- 
ent of  a  factory,  to  the  foreman  of  a  room  or  depart- 
ment in  a  factory,  or  to  some  one  who,  depending 
on  himself  alone,  is  slowly  building  up  a  business  on 
an  independent  basis.  The  separate  branches  of 
this  part  of  the  profession  are  as  different  as  separate 
manufacturing  industries.  In  one  case  castings 
of  one  to  twenty  tons  will  be  in  question,  where 
large  dynamos  have  to  be  made.  In  the  other  case 
the  brass  parts  of  telegraph  sounders,  and  the  cores 
of  sounders  and  of  relay  magnets  may  be  among  the 
largest  pieces  produced.  The  manufacturer  of  con- 
densers handles  tinfoil,  paper,  mica  and  paraffine ; 
the  maker  of  storage  batteries  uses  lead,  lead-oxides 
and  glass  or  rubber  cells.  It  would  seem  as  though 
any  one  could  find  something  adapted  to  his  scope 
in  such  a  variety. 

Perhaps  the  manufacture  of  dynamos  and  motors  is 
the  branch  that  appeals  most  strongly  to  the  younger 
electricians.  There  is  something  attractive  in  the 
idea  of  supplying  the  great  engines  of  electricity,  of 
being  in  the  fullest  sense  an  electrical  engineer,  in 
dealing  with  the  machines  which  have  created  the 
electricity  of  the  present  day.  They  are  the  subjects 
of  calculations  which  have  great  interest,  as  involv- 
ing the  application  of  lines  of  force,  reluctance  of  ma- 
terials and  distribution  of  core  and  pole  pieces.  The 
symmetry  of  the  field  depending  on  the  shape  of  the 


116  DYNAMO   AND  MOTOR   FACTORIES. 

pole-pieces  and  affecting  the  action  of  the  armature, 
the  work  of  the  latter  is  changed  by  adding  to  or  taking 
from  the  different  parts  of  the  poles.  There  is  some- 
thing fascinating  in  the  idea  of  changing  the  action  of 
an  armature  by  simply  varying  the  shape  of  the  appar- 
ently inert  and  actually  motionless  castings  or  forg- 
ings  which  conduct  or  regulate  the  distribution  of 
the  lines  of  force. 

Magnetic  leakage  and  its  prevention  appeal  also  to 
the  mind  of  the  electrical  constructor.  The  ideal 
dynamo  field,  where  the  aerial  lines  of  force  all  go 
straight  across  the  air-gaps,  and  where  one-half  of 
the  energy  given  to  the  field  is  not  uselessly  expended 
in  maintaining  lines  of  force  arching  about  in  curves 
as  pretty  as  useless, — this  ideal  is  a  sort  of  flying 
Dutchman  which  never  can  be  caught,  but  which  still 
tempts  pursuit,  though  we  know  it  to  be  hopeless. 
But  when  the  cheaper  type  of  motors  with  long  slim 
field  cores  and  attenuated  pole-pieces  made  of  the 
poorest  quality  of  chilled  castings  are  inspected, 
there  seems  plenty  of  room  for  improvement  in  de- 
sign. For  it  is  as  easy  to  design  a  small  dynamo 
correctly  as  it  is  to  design  a  large  one  ;  and  if  one  is 
making  even  toy  motors  for  boys,  it  seems  a  pity  to 
design  them  so  "badly  that  half  the  energy  goes  to  the 
field,  and  that  most  of  what  gets  there  is  absolutely 
wasted.  Thin  cores  of  iron  of  low  permeability  have 
much  to  do  with  the  sins  of  dynamos  and  motors. 

Sylvanus  P.  Thompson  is  emphatic  in  his  affirmation 


MAGNETIC   LEAKAGE.  117 

of  the  merits  of  what  he  calls  a  stumpy  electro-mag- 
net. His  very  interesting  account  of  the  different 
shapes  which  investigators  have  given  magnets  is 
worthy  of  recommendation  to  the  young  engineer. 
Many  of  the  attempts  which  have  been  made  to  do 
away  with  the  air-gap  and  copper-gap  reluctance 
do  not  seem  to  have  been  based  on  the  right  prem- 
ises. It  certainly  seems  as  if  occupation  for  investi- 
gators could  be  found  in  improving  the  magnetic 
circuit  of  dynamos  and  motors.  The  return  of  energy 
is  now  very  satisfactory,  and  as  reduction  of  leakage 
does  not  imply  a  very  great  increase  in  efficiency, 
there  is  not  room  for  much  of  improvement  in  this 
direction.  But  what  a  reduction  of  leakage  does 
imply  is  a  reduction  in  size,  a  saving  in  weight  and 
in  cost  of  metal,  an  increase  in  convenience,  such  as 
freedom  from  liability  to  magnetize  watches,  and  a 
more  accurate  working  as  a  larger  percentage  of  the 
field  would  be  utilized,  so  that  regulation  would  be 
regulation  of  a  larger  proportion  of  efficient  lines  of 
force  and  of  a  less  proportion  of  waste  lines. 

All  this  is  a  suggestion  of  work  which  might  be 
studied  in  the  factory. 

Again  a  small  business  can  perhaps  be  built  up 
on  dynamos  and  motors,  which  business  may  be 
trusted  in  time  to  grow  to  large  proportions.  There 
is  no  need  of  starting  a  foundry — the  castings  can  be 
made  at  a  few  cents  a  pound  by  the  regular  founder. 
A  model  shop  is  not  even  necessary  ;  the  work  can 


118  SMALL  BUSINESSES. 

be  drawn  and  sent  to  the  model  maker.  The  winding 
of  the  cores  and  armatures  can  be  done  very  well  in 
a  small  shop,  the  shape  of  cores  and  distribution  of 
material  can  be  well  worked  out  at  the  drawing- 
board,  and  personal  work  upon  the  machines  will 
give  great  scope  for  ingenuity  in  providing  for 
details  of  construction.  Little  capital  is  needed,  and 
if  customers  can  be  found  a  living  can  be  made. 
This,  however,  is  a  very  important  "  if."  It  is  a  word 
which  has  a  way  of  taking  the  beauty  out  of  many  a 
project. 

In  this  line  of  manufacture  you  have  to  compete 
with  cheap  motors  of  perhaps  five  per  cent,  efficiency 
and  with  high-class  motors  and  dynamos  of  ninety- 
five  per  cent,  efficiency.  It  is  easy  to  improve  on  the 
first :  there  is  little  chance  of  improving  on  the  lat- 
ter. It  follows  that  if  any  young  man  believes  that 
he  is  going  to  make  a  field  magnet  core  which  will 
revolutionize  dynamo  building,  he  is  in  all  probability 
going  to  be  disappointed;  a  thing  very  good  for  the 
moral  system,  but  rather  a  bitter  tonic  in  some  cases. 

One  aggravation  about  the  business  is  that  the  best 
efforts  at  the  production  of  high-grade  machinery 
may  be  nullified  by  the  use  made  of  the  product. 
Poor  connections,  improper  use  of  rheostats,  wrong 
speed  of  running  and  other  mistakes  and  mishaps 
may  cause  the  best  dynamo  to  give  a  very  poor  rec- 
ord. The  business  of  making  large  dynamos  has, 
however,  reached  very  high  perfection.  The  days 


HIGH-GRADE   MACHINERY.  119 

of  multiple  cores,  involving  wasted  copper  and  use- 
lessly absorbed  energy,  have  gone  by.  Permeance 
and  reluctance  mean  as  much  to  the  dynamo  builder 
as  do  conductance  and  resistance  to  the  working  elec- 
trician. Ideas  have  become  greatly  clarified  in  the 
last  few  years. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  dynamo  builder  is  in  pos- 
session of  one  of  the  most  interesting  fields  of  work. 
It  is  one  which  seems  to  afford  a  chance  for  the  be- 
ginner in  business.  It  is  one  which  gives  temptation 
for  experimentation,  temptation  which  may  often  lead 
to  fruitless  work,  the  reason  of  which  is  that  the  best 
electricians  of  the  world  have  been  giving  attention 
to  dynamo  design. 

An  electrician  may  do  other  things  than  experi- 
ment in  dynamo  design  and  calculations.  There  is 
much  to  be  done  in  the  conveyance  of  heavy  currents, 
in  providing  insulation  for  heavy  conductors,  and  in 
solving  the  problems  of  constructions  for  outdoor 
work,  such  as  the  prevention  of  leakage  on  a  long 
trolley  circuit ;  these  and  similar  things  are  problems 
which  verge  upon  another  branch  of  the  profession, 
but  the  factory  has  to  supply  the  parts  for  carrying 
out  the  requirements.  New  problems  are  constantly 
coming  up,  and  quantities  of  old  ones  are  un- 
solved. A  small  low-speed  motor  of  any  reasonable 
efficiency,  gearing  that  will  stand  the  wear  of  reduc- 
ing 2000  revolutions  per  minute  to  a  hundred  or  less, 
— such  are  examples  of  the  old-time  problems  on 
which  work  may  still  be  done. 


120  METERS. 


The  subject  of  electric  meters  is  an  attractive  one. 
Much  as  people  have  complained  of  the  gas-meter, 
they  have  more  reason  to  complain  of  the  ampere- 
meters supplied  for  metering  electric  energy.  These 
are  based  on  a  constant  voltage.  But  the  fall  of  a 
single  volt  of  potential  brings  about  a  directly  meas- 
urable decrease  in  energy,  of  which  the  meter  takes 
only  indirect  account.  The  fall,  however,  involves 
much  more  than  the  percentage  of  watts  due  to  the 
difference  between  no  and  109  volts,  for  it  makes  all 
the  lamps  burn  at  less  than  their  proper  candle- 
power.  The  customer  is  buying  light,  and  he  suffers 
an  injustice  if  he  is  required  to  pay  for  energy  that 
gives  an  imperfect  rendering  of  light.  He  cares 
nothing  for  obscure  energy.  Yet,  as  far  as  his  meteV 
is  concerned,  it  would  go  on  metering  energy  to  the 
debtor  side  of  his  account  if  the  voltage  fell  to  100 
and  lamps  were  turned  on  in  vain  hopes  of  getting 
some  light,  they  remaining  black  while  using  energy. 

The  system  of  metering  electric  energy  seems 
open  to  improvement.  The  best  minds  in  the  pro- 
fession have  not  succeeded  in  evolving  a  perfect 
meter.  In  a  constant  potential  system  the  factory 
itself,  in  maintaining  the  voltage,  is  a  portion  of  the 
meter.  Like  improvements  in  all  branches  of  elec- 
tricity, it  is  hard  to  improve  the  existing  appliances 
for  measuring  the  article  supplied.  But  a  true  en- 
ergy meter,  or  a  meter  that  would  automatically  cease 
recording  as  the  voltage  fell  below  a  certain  minimum, 
would  seem  a  desirable  thing. 


TESTING   MATERIALS.  121 

There  is  another  good  feature  connected  with  a 
factory.  It  is  the  possibility  of  expansion  and  of  de- 
velopment of  new  lines  of  work.  A  small  works 
building  a  few  dynamos  may  expand  and  supply 
lamps  and  full  lighting  plants.  It  may  branch  out 
into  telegraphic  instruments  or  storage  batteries. 

An  electric  light  arjd  power  station  in  the  normal 
state  of  things  grows,  but  its  growth  is  mere  expan- 
sion without  the  branching  out  into  new  lines.  A 
very  large  and  a  very  small  plant  are  the  same  thing 
except  in  size.  The  same  qualities  and  capacity  of 
engineer  are  required  in  both  large  and  small  sta- 
tions, but  the  electric  factory  brings  in  everything. 
The  glass-blower's  art  and  the  chemist's  profession 
join  with  the  machinist's  trade  in  its  productions.  A 
bright,  well-educated  electrician  will  find  a  manufac- 
turing establishment  where  electric  goods  are  made  a 
most  congenial  field  of  work. 

Materials  have  to  be  tested.  A  knowledge  of  the 
resistance  of  insulators,  their  dielectric  capacity,  the 
qualities  of  copper  as  a  conductor,  and  of  iron  as  the 
material  of  a  magnet-core,  or  transformer-core,  is  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  the  constructor.  Every 
sample  differs  from  others  of  the  same  material.  The 
figures  of  the  books  for  constants  of  copper,  German 
silver,  iron  and  other  materials  are  but  approxima- 
tions. The  rightly  ordered  factory  will  be  constantly 
in  need  of  new  determinations.  The  testing  electri- 
cian may  find  opportunities  for  good  work  without 


122  BEST  FIELD   FOR  WORK. 

ever  leaving  the  laboratory.  He  may  have  much 
to  do  in  determining  what  material  should  be  used  in 
dynamos,  and  in  so  doing  he  determines  their  good 
or  bad  qualities. 

Laboratory  work  plays  so  important  a  role  in 
many  factories  that  the  necessity  which  exists  for 
an  engineer  to  be  familiar  with  electrical  tests  of 
all  kinds  is  obvious. 

This  may  read  as  if  factory  work  was  the  best  field. 
But  there  is  no  best.  Simply  pointing  out  the 
features  of  each  branch  of  the  profession  and  ventur- 
ing to  show  that  there  are  lines  of  investigation  and 
improvement  well  worth  following  up,  pointing  out 
these  things  in  order  to  inculcate  the  wisdom  of  be- 
ing on  the  lookout  for  chances  to  improve,  this  does 
not  imply  that  the  electrical  manufacturer  is  higher  in 
the  profession  than  the  outside  engineer  who  erects 
factories  and  railroads  and  puts  up  plants  of  all  de- 
scriptions. All  kinds  of  work  are  attractive  and 
interesting,  and  we  can  but  hope  to  present  the  best 
side  of  each  kind  of  electrical  work,  with  some 
glimpses  of  the  worst  side. 


123 


CHAPTER    XIII. 
THE  CONSTRUCTING  ENGINEER. 

THE    ERECTION   OF    PLANTS GENERAL   KNOWLEDGE 

REQUIRED THE    GENERATING    PLANT   AND    ITS 

FUNCTIONS — BOILERS  AND  ENGINES ADVANCED 

SYSTEM     OF     RUNNING     PLANTS — PRACTICE     AND 
THEORY. 

One  branch  of  the  engineer's  art  consists  in  the 
erection  of  electric  plants.  Such  may  be  power  or 
light  plants,  including  the  central  station  where  the 
electric  energy  is  generated,  and  the  distributing 
system  in  use  outdoors  and  in  the  houses  of  custom- 
ers. Trolley  work,  underground  conduit  and  cable 
work  also  come  under  this  head. 

The  thorough  engineer  should  be  able  to  design 
and  lay  cut  all  of  the  plant  which  he  is  concerned 
with.  This  includes  the  buildings  and  roofs  as  well 
as  the  counter-shafting  and  machinery.  The  old- 
fashioned  engineer  in  other  departments  did  all  such 
work  in  the  days  when  electricity  was  unknown. 
But  now  the  great  contracting  establishments  take 
this  off  one's  hands,  and  bids  can  be  asked  for  the 
whole  establishment,  from  foundation  to  roof-truss, 


124  CONTRACT   BUILDERS. 


from  steam-gauge  to  dynamo.  A  man  who  lazily 
sits  at  a  desk  and  dictates  letters  asking  for  bids,  who 
opens  the  same  and  selects  the  lowest,  and  then 
abandons  the  site  to  the  operations  of  contractors, 
will  call  himself  an  engineer,  although  ignorant  of 
the  relative  degrees  of  difficulty  involved  in  the  con- 
struction of  a  one-faced  or  two-faced  brick  wall,  and 
perhaps  unable  to  appreciate  the  true  intricacies  of 
an  eight-inch  wall  pointed  on  both  sides. 

If  you  call  yourself  an  engineer,  be  one.  If  you 
are  to  attend  to  the  erection  of  generating  stations, 
try  to  know  something  of  stone-work,  of  brick-laying 
and  of  carpentry.  Remember  that  a  contractor  does 
nothing  for  fun  and  little  for  glory.  Duty  to  your 
employers  exacts  close  watch  of  their  operations  on 
your  part. 

But  one  may  claim  to  be  an  electrical  engineer 
only  and  not  a  civil  engineer.  But  civil  or  uncivil, 
an  electrical  engineer,  without  any  assumption  of  uni- 
versal knowledge,  may  have  common-sense  enough 
to  know  how  buildings  are  constructed,  to  know 
that  a  wall  should  be  plumb,  to  know  that 
thin  mortar  joints  look  better  and  are  better  than 
thick  ones.  If  Portland  cement  is  prescribed,  he  can 
readily  rig  up  a  simple  machine  for  testing  the 
strength  of  briquettes.  If  he  has  followed  the  sug- 
gestions contained  in  this  work,  his  education  will 
have  carried  him  far  enough  to  enable  him  to  do  this 
much  and  more  without  any  very  prolonged  study. 


SUPERVISION   OF   CONTRACTORS.  125 


But  do  not  let  him  fall  into  the  error  of  suppos- 
ing himself  to  be  a  universal  genius.  A  man  cannot 
have  a  profound  knowledge  of  everything  in  this  pro- 
fession. So  an  engineer  is  perfectly  justified  in  call- 
ing in  expert  assistance  in  superintending  important 
work.  Special  inspectors  may  justly  be  required  by 
him  for  the  protection  of  his  company. 

When  the  plans  for  the  building  are  in  question, 
including  the  location  of  engines  and  dynamos,  the 
arrangement  of  counter-shafts  and  situation  of  the 
boilers,  it  would  be  well  to  examine  other  electric  sta- 
tions, so  as  to  get  hints  as  to  disposition  of  parts  from 
them.  An  electric  power  station  is  but  a  giant  coal- 
consuming  agency,  the  potential  chemical  energy  of 
the  coal  and  oxygen  of  the  air  being  converted  into 
the  kinetic  energy  of  heat  and  that  into  the  mechan- 
ical energy  of  the  engines.  This  in  its  turn  develops 
the  electric  energy  to  be  sent  over  the  mains  and 
wires  of  the  distributing  system. 

The  plant  is  to  be  considered  a  unit.  It  is  one 
thing — an  entity  devoted  to  one  single  purpose,  the 
absorption  of  the  potential  energy  of  separate  carbon 
and  oxygen  and  the  production  of  kinetic  electric 
energy.  This  operation  has  to  go  on  day  and  night 
under  accurate  superintendence.  The  superintend- 
ence in  question  is  to  go  to  secure  the  saving  of 
every  pound  of  coal  and  of  every  day's  labor  possi- 
ble, which  exacts  a  distribution  of  parts  conducive 
to  such  ends.  The  works  must  be  systematically 


12'j  ECONOMY  OF  STEAM   PRACTICE. 


arranged  so  that  everything  can  be  done  as  cheaply 
as  possible,  and  so  that  complete  oversight  of  all 
operations  shall  be  easy. 

For  the  sake  of  economy  the  most  advanced  type 
of  boilers  and  engines  must  be  chosen.  The  second 
law  of  thermo-dynamics  is  not  being  precisely  beaten, 
but  is  being  robbed  of  part  of  its  terrors  by  the  use 
of  very  high-pressure  steam  worked  to  great  expan- 
sion. Exhaust  steam  might  theoretically  be  far  be- 
low the  temperature  of  boiling  water.  The  great 
trans-Atlantic  steamships  are  models  in  this  respect. 
If  a  table  of  data  of  ocean  greyhounds  for  the  last 
ten  years  is  inspected,  the  rapid  rise  in  steam  pressures 
employed  will  appear  remarkable.  To  accommodate 
the  expansion  several  successive  cylinders  are  em- 
ployed. This  prevents  too  great  condensation  of 
water  in  any  one  cylinder.  In  the  electric  light  sta- 
tion great  thought  and  care  should  be  devoted  to 
getting  good  engines.  A  ship  at  sea  in  a  gale,  tumb- 
ling and  rolling  about  as  if  ready  to  go  to  pieces, 
should  not  be  able  to  give  a  modern  electric  gener- 
ating station  any  points  on  economy  of  steam  gener- 
ation. Yet  it  is  to  be  feared  that  it  sometimes  can. 

The  engines  must  be  a  subject  of  consideration. 
A  fad  for  high-speed  engines,  a  fancy  for  an  engine 
of  fewest  parts,  an  idea  that  it  is  a  great  thing  to 
cast  cylinder-head  and  bed-plate  in  one  piece,  should 
not  be  the  controlling  motives  in  buying  them. 
There  are  important  generalities  that  apply  to  all 


DEFECTS  IN  STEAM  PLANT. 


engines,  and  these  the  engineer  should  take  cogni- 
zance of.  A  cylinder  exposed,  unlagged,  to  the  air, 
steam-pipes  which  wire-draw  the  steam,  and  cause  a 
good  part  of  its  energy  to  be  expended  before  it 
reaches  the  throttle-valve,  a  tightly  packed  stuffing- 
box  through  which  the  steam  has  to  force  the  reluc- 
tant piston-rod,  a  setting  of  the  valves  which  cushions 
the  piston  inordinately, — these  and  many  other  de- 
fects have  to  be  guarded  against. 

The  erecting  engineer  may  have  at  his  service  the 
best  dynamos  and  boilers,  and  all  maybe  spoiled  by  a 
bad  engine.  If  the  latter  is  also  of  the  best  quality, 
bad  piping  and  other  defective  features  may  spoil  its 
efficiency. 

In  the  steam  generating  part  of  the  plant,  the  boiler- 
room,  there  is  room  for  engineering.  A  hot  fire-box 
and  a  cold  chimney  are  the  first  signs  of  efficiency  there. 
This  efficiency  the  boilers  may  give,  and  yet  it  all 
may  be  lost.  Want  of  adequate  protection  of  the 
boiler  from  loss  of  heat  may  destroy  entirely  the 
furnace  economy.  Good  setting  of  the  boilers  and 
proper  protection  against  loss  of  heat  by  radiation 
are  of  the  greatest  importance. 

The  advanced  system  of  running  plants  is  to  weigh 
the  coal,  weigh  the  ashes,  and  weigh  or  measure  the 
water.  The  arrangement  of  the  boiler  plant  must 
favor  the  easy  carrying  out  of  these  operations.  If 
anything  has  to  be  hoisted,  ashes  will  be  cheaper  to 
hoist  than  coal.  Throughout  there  is  room  for  com- 


128  PLANS  AND  DETAILS  OF  WORKS. 

mon-sense.  The  books  may  disclose  the  accepted 
sizes  of  pipes  ;  your  plan  will  be  an  improvement 
on  this  if  you  will  use  pipes  of  twice  the  sectional 
area.  But  if  you  do  not  protect  your  pipes  by 
non-conducting  covers,  the  large  pipes,  on  account 
of  their  larger  cooling  service,  may  be  worse  than  the 
small  ones. 

In  all  the  arrangement  of  details  and  planning  of 
the  works  a  good  strong  judgment  will  do  wonders. 
The  effect  of  all  your  good  work  will  be  possibly 
quite  perceptible,  but  here,  as  in  all  engineering,  it  is 
very  hard  to  make  much  of  an  advance  on  the  work 
of  your  predecessoft.  A  great  deal  of  thought  and 
of  expense  may  be  involved  in  some  of  your  new 
ideas,  and  so  meager  a  result  obtained,  as  not  to  jus- 
tify you  in  carrying  them  out.  It  is  wonderful  how 
well  an  idea  may  appear  on  paper  and  how  poorly  it 
may  work  out  in  practice. 


129 


CHAPTER    XIV. 
THE  STATION  ENGINEER. 

THE  QUALITIES  REQUIRED — DEALING  WITH  MANKIND 

—  THE    PUBLIC COMPLAINTS — IMPORTANCE     OF 

COURTESY  —  SKILLED     WORKMEN PROMOTION 

FROM     THE    RANKS — STATION     ECONOMY THE 

PRESIDENT — EXECUTIVE    ABILITY DEPENDENCE 

ON    THE    FACTORY. 

An  engineer  may  have  the  good  fortune  to  be  en- 
gaged in  the  erection  of  a  plant  which  he  is  to  run. 
Then  he  can  arrange  every  detail  to  suit  his  own 
ideas  with  the  certainty  that  he  is  working  for  an  ap- 
preciative audience.  But  often  the  engineer  who  is 
to  conduct  and  superintend  the  operations  of  a  plant 
has  to  possess  a  different  range  of  qualities  than 
those  possessed  by  a  constructor.  Often,  as 
has  been  said,  an  engineer  will  be  the  nominal 
erector  of  a  plant,  while  it  will  have  been  really  due 
to  the  contractors,  and  after  they  are  through  he  will 
receive  the  plant  and  proceed  to  get  it  into  regular 
operation.  Some  of  the  qualities  which  the  station 
engineer  requires  are  touched  on  elsewhere. 

He  is  a  manager  of  men  ;  he  not  only  has  to  man- 
age workmen  of  the  laboring  and  of  the  technical 


130  COMPLAINTS  OF  CUSTOMERS. 

classes,  but  he  also  has  a  more  or  less  direct  inter- 
course with  the  public.  The  public,  as  the  customers  of 
the  company,  are  served  by  him,  and  their  complaints 
sooner  or  later  reach  him.  If  an  electric  light  and 
power  station  is  in  his  charge  and  the  voltage  falls  a 
little,  he  is  robbing  the  customers  of  an  immense 
total  of  light,  and  will  be  apt  to  hear  from  them  very 
soon.  A  variation  of  speed  in  the  engines  will  be  re- 
flected over  the  entire  area  of  the  district  in  a  fluctu- 
ation of  the  lights. 

The  public  may  never  know  the  engineer,  but  they 
will  know  where  the  office  of  the  company  is,  and 
thither  they  will  wend  their  way  with  complaints  or 
will  write  in  case  of  trouble.  These  complaints  will 
be  passed  on  to  the  engineer,  so  that  he  will  be  in 
constant  touch  with  his  public,  as  long  as  things  go 
wrong.  His  study  of  human  nature  will  find  a  good 
field  for  exercise  and  practical  application  if  the 
works  are  not  well  run. 

As  long  as  the  operations  at  the  works  go  smoothly 
the  public  will  be  little  heard  from.  They  have  now 
been  educated  in  electricity.  They  do  not  amuse 
themselves  by  searching  for  weak  spots  on  conductors 
or  on  arc-lamp  frames  whence  to  take  shocks.  If  a 
carbon  filament  gives  way,  the  accident  is  taken  phil- 
osophically. They  have  by  some  mysterious  process 
learned  to  accept  the  bills  rendered  for  electric  ser- 
vice as  correct,  something  they  never  would  do  in 
the  case  of  gas  bills.  So,  if  you  ever  reach  the  point 


MEETING   COMPLAINTS.  131 

of  having  a  station  put  in  your  charge,  you  will  find  a 
pretty  well-trained  set  of  customers  to  be  served. 
By  keeping  your  engines  and  belts  in  good  shape, 
and  by  selecting  good  men  to  regulate  the  output  as 
to  the  potential  or  current,  you  should  have  no 
trouble  in  pleasing  the  public. 

But  if  things  go  wrong,  the  complaints  must  be  met. 
Here  courtesy  will  apply.  A  polite  treatment  of  a 
complaint  is  appreciated  by  the  complainer,  and  is 
accepted  as  an  apology.  "  A  soft  answer  turneth 
away  wrath."  If  the  engineer  never  meets  the  cus- 
tomers, he  may  have  to  dictate  measures  to  the  secre- 
tary or  other  representative  of  the  'company  who 
does  meet  them.  Let  him  put  himself  in  the  place 
of  the  official,  and  in  the  light  of  his  own  technical 
knowledge  see  haw  he  would  answer  the  complain- 
ers.  Then  he  can  impart  the  general  statement  to 
the  official  in  question. 

Laboring  men  have  to  be  dealt  with,  which  is  not 
a  very  difficult  matter.  But  there  will  also  be  a  more 
troublesome  task  in  handling  technical  workmen,  men 
who  have  a  slight  knowledge  of  electric  work,  and 
who  are  perhaps  unduly  impressed  with  their  own 
superiority  due  to  such  knowledge.  Such  men  are 
most  useful.  They  have  a  detailed  knowledge  of 
certain  things,  which  is  valuable,  and  would  be  well 
worth  possessing.  But  its  range  is  very  limited.  It 
therefore  is  necessary  to  keep  them  within  their 
prerogatives,  and  because  a  man  knows  just  how  to 


132  PRACTICAL  EDUCATION. 

humor  a  refractory  lamp,  he  must  not  be  accepted  as 
counselor  in  the  operations  of  a  station. 

A  young  man  may  work  up  to  the  position  of  sta- 
tion superintendent  by  promotion  from  the  ranks. 
He  may  begin  at  the  very  lowest  position.  If  he 
does  so  and  gradually  works  up,  he  will  obtain  this  de- 
tailed knowledge  of  which  we  have  spoken.  Such  a 
graduate  of  practical  life,  if  he  possesses  the  other 
qualities  and  education  enough,  will  make  the  best 
kind  of  a  manager.  The  men  will  soon  find  that  he 
has  the  same  precise  knowledge  upon  which  they 
pride  themselves,  however  slight  in  extent  it  is  in 
their  own  individual  cases.  Any  trouble  is  quickly 
met  and  remedied.  An  electric  company  of  the  sort 
described  should  encourage  students.  As  the  navy 
or  army  has  its  cadets,  the  electric  industry  should 
have  the  same.  Perhaps  the  simile  or  designation  of 
cadets  applies  better  to  college  students.  But  in  the 
army  or  navy  some  of  the  best  officers  have  worked 
up  from  the  ranks,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  elec- 
tric industry.  The  younger  men  should  be  encour- 
aged, for  in  them  is  the  making  of  the  best  grade  of 
engineers  and  managers. 

Mechanical  and  steam  engineering  will  constitute 
a  great  part  of  the  work  of  the  superintendent  of  a 
plant.  While  everything  is  subordinate  to  electric 
energy  and  its  generation  and  distribution,  a  few 
simple  rules  will  cover  the  ground  of  most  of  the 
electrical  problems.  But  the  engines  must  run  with 


PLANT  EFFICIENCY.  133 

exact  regularity;  the  boilers  must  be  managed  with  the 
utmost  skill,  and  economy  must  be  obtained  in  all.  The 
exact  registry  of  coal,  water  and  ashes  gives  the  cri- 
terion of  the  work  that  is  doing.  The  electric  energy 
delivered,  reckoned  in  watts,  gives  the  other  figure  for 
reckoning  station  economy,  while  the  units  paid  for 
by  the  customers  tell  how  efficient  is  the  distri- 
bution— the  average  drop  is  the  criterion  of  this 
efficiency.  Then  from  the  pounds  of  coal  burned  in 
proportion  to  the  watts  paid  for  is  deduced  the  total 
efficiency  of  the  generating  and  distributing  plant 
reckoned  as  a  unit. 

A  business  man  will  soon  grasp  the  above  general- 
ities. A  little  figuring  will  enable  him  to  see  how 
much  coal  is  burned  to  extract  one  dollar  from  a 
customer.  He  will  easily  get  similar  labor  figures. 
A  good  president  or  executive  officer  will  hold  an  en- 
gineer down  to  a  very  exact  account  of  expenditures 
and  results. 

In  the  successful  conduct  of  a  generating  station 
and  distributing  plant  a  full  knowledge  of  electrical 
engineering  combined  with  that  indefinable  quality 
termed  executive  ability  is  required  The  calcula- 
tions to  be  made  are  few  and  simple  ;  they  are  all 
done  in  the  factory.  The  dynamos  in  their  windings 
and  shapes  of  core  embody  some  of  them.  The 
measuring  instruments  are  all  standardized.  All 
ought  to  run  smoothly.  But  sometimes  things  go 
wrong,  and  "bugs,"  as  the  telegraphers  named  them, 


134  THE  SUPERINTENDENT'S  WORK. 

have  to  be  located  and  got  rid  of.  To  do  this  it  is 
evident  that  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  subject  is 
required,  together  with  a  certain  amount  of  instinct 
or  intuitiveness. 

The  preparation  needed  for  this  position  is 
best  obtained  by  the  -means  already  suggested,  by 
graduating  from  the  ranks  of  station  employes.  But 
in  the  general  education  it  is  rarely  worth  while  to 
make  any  special  reference  to  it  in  one's  studies.  If 
you  do  and  expect  to  stumble  by  good  luck  and  your 
merits  into  such  a  position,  you  will  be  apt  to  find 
that,  while  the  unexpected  does  not  always  come  to 
pass,  the  expected  has  a  great  way  of  not  happening. 

In  station  management  the  superintendent  is  cap- 
tain of  his  ship,  and  within  his  own  limits  is  supreme. 
This  is  always  a  pleasant  feature.  Yet  the  position 
is  far  from  being  a  high  one.  A  plant  gets  to  run- 
ning like  a  clock,  with  now  and  then  an  annoying 
break-down  or  accident,  and  there  is  no  pretense 
that  very  high  abilities  are  required  in  superintend- 
ing its  operations. 

If  new  electric  machinery  is  wanted,  the  factory 
supplies  it.  There  is  not  the  least  occasion  for  the 
station  superintendent  to  have  more  to  say  about  a 
new  dynamo  than  to  specify 'its  capacity  or  constants. 
He  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  its  design  or  struct- 
ural peculiarities.  He  receives  everything  in  the 
way  of  supplies  in  the  ready-made  condition,  and  his 
hand  can  hardly  leave  the  mark  of  his  individuality 


THE  FACTORY  AND  THE  STATION.  135 

upon  a  collection  of  machinery  with  whose  origina- 
tion he  had  nothing  to  do.  There  is  often  a  feeling 
of  subordination  to  the  factory,  which  feeling  some- 
times assumes  an  unpleasant  aspect,  when  it  seems 
as  if  the  factory  supplied  the  brains. 

But  it  should  be  remembered  that  any  commercial 
dynamo  is  the  outcome  of  numerous  trials  and  is 
rather  a  growth  than  an  invention,  and  the  feeling 
spoken  of  seems  unjust.  The  years  of  modern  elec- 
trical science  are  the  creators  of  the  dynamo  ;  the 
factory  supplying  dynamos  is  availing  itself  of  these 
years  of  work  and  study,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that 
in  the  factory  no  one  has  in  the  full  sense  designed 
the  dynamos  made. 

The  species  of  jealousy  described  is  out  of  place 
and  to  be  deprecated.  The  station  engineer,  by  the 
selective  processes  of  modern  life,  is  rapidly  being 
differentiated  from  the  constructing  engineer.  But 
both  of  them  are  guided  by  the  experiences  of  others. 
Their  apprenticeship  is  largely  in  the  lives  of  their 
predecessors. 


136 


CHAPTER  XV. 

INVENTING. 

SHOULD  ONE  BECOME  AN  INVENTOR  ? — WHAT  CONSTI- 
TUTES A  SUCCESSFUL  INVENTION — CONSTRUCTION 
AND  INVENTION USEFUL  AND  USELESS  INVEN- 
TIONS— THE  PRACTICAL  VIEW  TO  BE  TAKEN — NOV- 
ELTY AS  WELL  AS  ORIGINALITY  REQUISITE — PAT- 
ENT SUITS — PATENTS  AND  CAVEATS — CLAIMS — 
ESTABLISHING  DATE  OF  INVENTION 

What  can  one  conversant  with  patents  and  patent 
law  say  about  inventions  ?  Should  an  engineer  or 
practicing  electrician  invent  and  patent  his  inven- 
tions ?  It  is  hard  to  remove  all  prejudice  and  answer 
the  question  dispassionately. 

The  qualified  inventor,  one  who  distinguishes  be- 
tween the  ingenuity  of  construction  and  the  genius 
of  invention,  one  who  has  studied  up  his  case  so 
effectually  that  he  knows  whether  there  is  a  probable 
market  for  his  patent  or  for  things  made  under  it, 
one,  finally,  who  does  not  overestimate  the  worth  of 
his  own  achievement,  such  an  inventor  is  a  rarity. 
For  too  often  the  inventor  is  one-sided  and  dread- 
fully sanguine,  and  imbued  with  a  sense  of  his  own 


CAPABILITY   OF  INVENTING.  137 

ingeniousness.  Men  of  one  idea  are  grand  or  small 
according  to  the  size  and  dimensions  of  the  one  idea, 
and  according  to  their  own  qualifications  for  carry- 
ing out  their  chosen  end. 

There  is  ample  room  for  invention.  A  good  inven- 
tion is  a  greater  service  to  humanity  than  it  is  apt  to 
be  to  its  originator.  Therefore,  if  capable  of  it,  in- 
vent all  you  can  and  patent  your  inventions. 

But  are  you  capable  of  properly  inventing  ?  There 
is  the  difficult  question.  To  decide,  ask  yourself  the 
following  queries, — if  you  can  answer  them  satisfac- 
torily, you  may  call  yourself  qualified  to  invent. 

A  difficult  piece  of  machinery  may  come  to  a  shop 
to  be  designed,  merely  a  general  idea  of  what  is 
wanted  being  given  by  a  rough  sketch,  with  explan- 
atory remarks  radiating  from  it  in  all  directions.  It 
is  taken  to  the  drawing-room,  and  the  draughtsmen 
open  fire  upon  it.  The  slight  sketch  and  directions 
are  amplified,  gearing  is  calculated  and  introduced, 
and  gradually  a  perfect  machine,  embodying  prob- 
ably points  of  construction  not  contemplated  in  the 
original  sketch,  is  produced.  Yet  in  all  this  develop- 
ment there  may  be  no  invention.  The  original 
smeared  and  labelled  sketch  may  embody  a  most  in- 
genious invention,  while  the  elaborate  scale  drawings 
have  grafted  upon  it  nothing  but  features  of  con- 
struction. The  invention  appears  in  each  and  shines 
out  through  it,  but  it  is  just  as  clear  or  clearer  in  the 
original  sketch.  The  first  question  alluded  to  above 


138  COMMERCIAL  ASPECTS. 


is  shadowed  forth  in  the  supposed  case — Can  you 
distinguish  between  construction  and  invention? 

The  next  question  refers  to  what  you  will  do  with 
your  invention.  Do  the  public  want  it,  or  have  they 
already  something  better  ?  This  must  be  answered 
dispassionately,  and  you  must  not  be  led  astray  by 
hope.  The  commercial  market  must  be  judged  and 
estimated.  Such  operation  is  rather  within  the  func- 
tions of  a  business  man  than  of  an  inventor.  It 
would  be  well  if  inventors  had  both  before  and  after 
their  inventive  periods  the  services  of  acute  business 
men.  Before  expending  time  and  thought  upon  an 
invention  their  associate  would  tell  them  what  was 
the  prospect  for  a  market.  After  completing  an  in- 
vention the  same  ally  would  know  what  to  do  with 
it.  But  the  question  must  be  asked  and  answered 
properly  by  yourself  if  you  are  capable  of  inventing. 

Assuming  that  the  two  questions  can  be  answered 
affirmatively  in  your  case,  invent  all  you  wish  to.  A 
due  attention  to  the  requisites  indicated  will  have  a 
very  restricting  effect  upon  your  work.  The  striv- 
ing will  be  after  the  hidden  genius  of  invention, — mere 
ingenuity  of  construction  will  be  looked  down  upon 
as  not  to  the  point.  The  most  complex  designs  will 
be  considered  subsidiary  to  the  central  idea,  which  is 
the  invention.  The  whole  will  be  subsidiary  to  the 
public  need  for  it. 

Mere  beauty  of  conception  will  be  put  aside  and 
the  practical  view  taken  of  anything  tempting  to  in- 


UTILITY.  139 

vention.  The  utility  of  a  proposed  thing  will  be 
duly  considered  and  weighed  before  time  and  thought 
are  expended  on  inventing  it.  There  is  no  glory  in 
inventing, — it  should  not  be  regarded  as  a  scientific 
achievement,  but  only  as  a  practical  one.  Invention 
stands  upon  another  plane  than  do  investigation 
and  discovery.  The  latter  may  be  entered  on  from 
pure  love  of  knowledge  and  without  any  considera- 
tion of  the  practical  aspect  of  the  case.  The  ideal 
of  a  pure  scientist  is  to  make  original  and  theoret- 
ically important  discoveries, — the  ideal  of  an  invent- 
or is  to  make  original,  novel  and  practically  valu- 
able inventions. 

Thus  the  inventor  seems  to  stand  upon  a  less  lofty 
plane  than  does  the  pure  scientist,  and  perhaps  he 
does  so.  The  one  strives  for  money,  the  other  for 
glory.  The  majority  of  the  readers  of  this  work 
have  probably  a  due  regard  for  the  emoluments  of 
the  profession.  The  money  derived  from  laboring  in 
it  is  earned  legitimately,  and  is  a  right  end  to  have  in 
view.  Therefore,  if  you  can  do  so,  invent. 

If  you  do  invent,  be  prepared  for  disappointment. 
The  Patent  Office  may  be  the  first  to  nip  your  aspira- 
tions in  the  bud  by  showing  an  anticipation  of  your 
invention.  What  you  have  invented  may  be  original 
but  not  novel.  "  Great  minds  leap,"  and  someone 
may  have  trodden  your  path  before  you. 

If  the  ordeal  of  the  Patent  Office  is  passed,  the 
making  a  business  success  out  of  your  patent  is  a 


140  PATENT  SUITS. 

difficult  task,  and  one  for  which  you  may  be  alto- 
gether unfitted.  An  active  business  man  is  wanted, 
who  will  see  enough  in  your  invention  to  justify  him 
for  the  time  being  in  taking  up  the  role  of  a  man  of 
one  idea  and  of  pushing  your  invention  on  to  success. 

The  next  ordeal  may  be  that  of  patent  suits. 
These  you  may  have  to  bring,  or  you  may  have  to 
defend  yourself  against  others  suing  you  for  in- 
fringement. Money  is  required,  and  the  patent  has 
to  undergo  adjudication  by  the  Court,  perhaps  to  be 
declared  invalid  and  worthless. 

It  is  an  anomaly  of  our  patent  laws  that  the  scope 
of  an  invention  is  limited  by  its  claims.  A  bad 
attorney,  in  drawing  up  a  patent,  may  give  it  insuffi- 
cient claims.  For  this  there  is  no  help.  The  courts, 
in  the  re-issue  decisions,  have  virtually  estopped  the 
one  avenue  of  relief  that  was  open  for  inventors  in 
this  regard.  Everything  depends  on  the  claims. 

Hence  a  competent  attorney  should  be  employed 
to  take  out  the  patent.  He  should  be  one  having 
experience  in  law  suits.  His  talent  should  lie  in  an 
ability  to  draw  up  claims  which  will  stand  examina- 
tion in  the  courts, — he  should  not  simply  try  to  get 
your  invention  in  any  shape  through  the  Patent 
Office. 

Do  not  take  out  a  caveat.  This  is  about  as  useless 
a  thing  as  our  government  provides.  For  the  ten 
dollars  you  pay  for  it  you  get  nothing  except  an 
agreement  that  the  Patent  Office  authorities  are  to 


CAVEAT  AND   PATENT  APPLICATION.  HI 

inform  you  if  any  one  applies  for  a  patent  for  the 
same  thing.  If  they  fail  to  give  such  information, 
you  can  do  nothing,  and  your  caveat  is  useless.  If 
they  do  so  inform  you,  you  apply  for  a  patent,  perhaps, 
losing  the  advantage  of  months  in  establishing  your 
date  of  application.  But  if  you  apply  for  a  patent, 
you  at  once  establish  this  important  date,  and  you 
can  keep  your  application  alive  for  an  indefinite 
period.  Your  application  is  kept  secret,  and  the  first 
money  spent  is  invested  in  the  operation  of  getting  a 
patent.  Time  and  money  spent  on  a  caveat  do 
nothing  in  this  direction. 

When  an  invention  is  made,  fix  at  once  the  date  of 
invention.  A  sketch  dated,  signed  by  yourself  and  by 
one  or  two  witnesses  is  excellent  proof.  It  may  be 
needed  in  interference  proceedings  or  in  patent 
suits. 


142 


CHAPTER     XVI. 
ORIGINAL  INVESTIGATION. 

QUALIFICATIONS  REQUIRED  FOR  ORIGINAL  RESEARCH 

USELESS  THEORIZING INCOMPETENT  THEORIZ- 

ERS ORIGINALITY — PUBLICATION  OF  RESULTS — 

WRITING  PAPERS. 

The  primary  lesson  of  this  book  is  contained  in 
two  words — Be  practical.  Every  one's  life  should  be 
so,  and  as  it  fails  in  this,  failure  in  everything  follows. 
The  scientific  life  should  be  guided  by  a  gospel  of 
work.  The  most  abstruse  mathematicians  and  the- 
orizers,  in  the  eyes  of  those  without  proper  insight, 
seem  not  to  live  up  to  this  ideal,  but  they  really  do. 
No  man's  work  has  borne  more  practical  fruit  than 
Clerk  Maxwell's  mathematics  and  Sir  William  Thom- 
son's investigations.  The  latter,  to  be  sure,  is  a  rare 
combination  of  the  mathematical  theorizer  and  me- 
chanical constructor.  His  apparatus  is  in  use  in  the 
finer  operations  of  the  science.  His  name  will  for 
many  years  be  uneclipsed  by  that  of  any  successor. 

But  just  in  proportion  as  it  is  useful  and  proper  for 
such  men  as  those  mentioned  to  investigate  the  lumi- 
niferous  ether  and  to  evolve  theories  of  electricity,  so 
is  it  useless  and  improper  for  those  unqualified  by 


USELESS  THEORIZERS.  145 

genius  and  study  to  spend  their  time  theorizing. 
This  is  no  idle  remark.  There  are  numbers  of  people 
who  consider  themselves  thinkers  and  who  waste  their 
energies  on  envolving  the  most  absurd  and  useless 
theories.  They  will  formulate  a  theory  that  the  sun 
is  not  hot,  that  gravity  must  work  in  a  closed  circuit, 
that  the  earth  is  a  dynamo,  and  so  on.  Sometimes 
their  theories  may  be  half  true.  Sometimes  they  will 
be  quite  absurd.  But  one  prevailing  characteristic  is 
noticeable  in  all  of  them — their  utter  uselessness  and 
inapplicability  to  any  useful  end.  One  of  the  favor- 
ite questions  is  this  :  If  a  gun  were  fired  in  the  Desert 
of  Sahara,  where  no  ear  could  hear  the  report,  would 
there  be  any  sound  ?  Of  course,  whether  there  would 
or  would  not  be,  depends  on  whether  we  use  the  word 
"  sound"  in  its  subjective  or  objective  sense. 

An  example  may  even  be  found  in  the  higher 
schools  of  science.  In  physics  the  advocates  of  the 
corpuscular  and  undulatory  theories  of  light  engaged 
in  the  fiercest  possible  contests  with  each  other  dur- 
ing the  last  century,  and  in  geology  the  plutonic  and 
neptunic  schools  waged  war  also.  If,  instead  of  de- 
voting their  energies  to  fighting,  all  had  united  in  hum- 
bly seeking  the  truth,  science  would  certainly  have 
been  advanced. 

Therefore  be  slow  to  theorize.  Study  facts,  work 
out  analogies  to  fix  more  firmly  on  your  mind  how 
electricity  acts,  but  do  not  make  the  sustaining  of 
some  absurd  theory  and  the  boring  with  it  of  all 


146  ORIGINAL  WORK  AND  THEORIES. 

your  acquaintances  your  mission  in  life.  You  are 
working  in  a  field  of  which  little  is  known  and  of 
which  we  may  never  know  much.  Electricity  is  al- 
most as  great  a  mystery  as  gravitation.  There  is 
the  more  reason  why  we  should  be  slow  to  con- 
sider ourselves  the  ones  destined  to  surpass  the 
greatest  intellects  of  the  world  and  to  tell  mankind 
what  electricity  is. 

This  particular  subject  is  considered  so  hopeless 
that  a  disposition  on  almost  any  one's  part  to  deter- 
mine what  electricity  is  marks  such  a  person  for 
avoidance.  Incompetent  theorizers,  men  who  truth- 
fully will  say  that  they  know  nothing  of  chemistry, 
and  who  next  proceed  to  evolve  fruitless  ideas  on 
electricity,  are  the  unclean  beasts  of  the  profession. 

Somewhat  the  same  may  be  said  of  independent  in- 
vestigators. Work  away  at  original  things  all  you 
wish  to.  Nothing  is  better.  But  distrust  its  nov- 
elty. It  is  astonishing  how  hard  it  is  to  find  a  new 
line  of  work  in  science.  So  much  has  been  done  that 
it  is  ten  to  one  that  any  particular  ground  has  been 
covered.  Sometimes  the  records  are  buried  away  in 
the  files  of  a  journal  and  are  forgotten.  When  an 
apparently  new  field  is  entered,  it  would  often  be 
advisable  for  the  investigator  to  look  in  books  and 
also  to  run  through  the  files  of  some  electrical 
journals,  to  determine  whether  his  ideas  have  not  been 
anticipated.  Mortification  might  have  been  spared 
some  of  our  best  inventors  by  this  course.  Thou- 


MECHANICAL  IMPROVEMENTS.  147 

sands  of  workers  have  preceded  you,  and  the  chances 
are  against  your  doing  anything  new.  The  so-called 
Napoleons  of  science,  like  those  of  finance,  some- 
times come  to  evil  ends. 

Many,  we  wish  we  could  say  all,  of  our  readers 
remember  the  investigations  of  the  Pickwick  Club. 
Pickwick  clubs  are  sometimes  still  found  in  the  world 
of  science. 

In  practical,  every-day  work  about  an  electric  sta- 
tion or  in  an  electric  manufactory  there  will  be  many 
little  improvements  which  will  suggest  themselves. 
But  on  trial  it  will  be  found  that  the  selective  pro- 
cesses of  mechanics  have  generally  established  the 
use  of  methods  difficult  to  supplant.  Yet  this 
line  of  independent  experimenting  should  be  encour- 
aged. It  may  lead  to  something, — its  results  are 
easily  weighed  and  valued, — and  it  gives  the  engi- 
neer's mind  more  flexibility,  and  goes  to  make  him 
more  useful  than  he  would  be  if  he  trod  always  in 
the  footsteps  of  his  predecessors.  But  it  is  very  dif- 
ficult to  gain  anything  by  leaving  those  footsteps. 

When  by  original  work,  and  what  is  tolerably  cer- 
tain to  be  novel  work,  something  has  been  done,  it 
should  be  published.  A  young  man  should  start 
early  in  the  publication  of  what  he  has  done.  The 
practice  of  submitting  one's  self  to  the  judgment  of 
mankind  by  putting  one's  self  in  print  has  much  to 
commend  it.  But  the  greatest  discretion  and  caution 
must  be  exercised. 


148  PUBLICATION   OF  RESEARCHES. 

Be  a  member  of  an  engineering  society.  Read 
your  paper  before  them,  so  that  a  small  audience  of 
qualified  men  may  have  the  chance  to  tear  you  to 
pieces.  If  what  you  say  seems  well  received,  then 
you  may  feel  that  some  basis  is  established  for  its 
publication.  When  you  submit  it  to  the  editor  of  a 
scientific  journal,  it  may  undergo  a  still  more  severe 
criticism.  All  this  is  good  discipline  and  good  prac- 
tice. But  if  self-educated  in  the  profession,  it  will 
be  a  long  time  before  you  will  reach  a  point  when 
you  will  care  to  publish  your  work. 

What  has  been  said  is  intended  to  inculcate  caution 
in  theorizing  for  your  own  sake  as  well  as  for  that  of 
others.  If  you  do  want  to  exercise  your  brain,  do 
not  try  to  evolve  a  theory  for  so  recondite  a  subject 
as  electricity  until  you  can  tell  why  an  apple  falls  to 
earth. 

You  must,  before  you  write  a  paper,  know  something 
about  composition.  For  your  purposes  there  is  one 
golden  rule — Be  simple.  In  ordinary,  every-day  Eng- 
lish you  will  find  enough  words  for  all  ordinary  pur- 
poses of  expression.  In  addition  you  will  have  to  use 
technical  words,  but  that  is  aside  from  the  main  ques- 
tion. But  do  not  invent  words,  as  if  the  Century 
Dictionary  was  not  big  enough, — avoid  all  singulari- 
ties of  construction, — do  not  try  to  write  like  Carlyle 
nor  even  like  yourself.  Simply  think  out  what  you 
have  to  say  and  say  it  simply. 

A  confusion  of  statement  indicates  a  confusion  of 


WRITING.  149 


ideas.  Let  your  writings  prove  that  your  mind  is  in 
good  order. 

There  is  great  difficulty  in  putting  anything  into 
writing  as  it  should  be  done.  Merely  to  express  to  us 
our  own  thoughts  in  the  best  possible  language  is  high 
art.  If  you  do  propose  to  write  anything  for  a  so- 
ciety or  for  publication,  have  your  thoughts  and 
ideas  very  clear  and  well  defined.  Then  put 
them  into  simple  language.  Avoid  too  long  sen- 
tences. The  jerkiness  of  short  sentences  must  also 
be  avoided.  Do  not  use  too  many  adjectives  ;  you 
will  secure  strength  of  expression  by  the  use  of  nouns 
"The  adjective  is  the  greatest  enemy  of  the  noun, 
though  it  agrees  with  it  in  gender,  number  and  case." 

This  is  no  treatise  on  rhetoric  and  composition, 
but  one  good  rule  cannot  well  be  omitted.  It  is  this  : 
When  you  feel  that  something  which  you  have  writ- 
ten is  unusually  fine  and  well  put,  let  it  stand  until 
the  next  day,  and  then  remorselessly  scratch  it  out. 
Your  satisfaction  with  your  own  writing  is  a  strong 
proof  of  its  bad  quality. 


150 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

SUCCESS. 

THE  RACE  FOR  MONEY THE  NOBLER  LIFE THE  END 

FOR  WHICH  WE  ARE  ADAPTED — HONOR  AND  HON- 
ESTY—  THE  HUMAN  ELEMENT DIRECTORS  AND 

EXECUTIVE  OFFICERS THE  BUSINESS  MAN— DEAL- 
ING WITH  VANITY — RINGS  AND  CLIQUES — CON- 
TRACTORS— OVER-SCRUPULOUSNESS — WORKMEN. 

Success  is  the  goal  of  the  ambitious  young  man. 
He  perhaps  takes  up  this  book  hoping  that  it  will 
help  him  to  the  coveted  end.  But  what  does  he 
account  success?  If  it  is  simply  money  that  is  de- 
sired, a  very  low  ideal  is  created,  and  it  would  be  a 
poor  recommendation  for  our  efforts,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  professional  life  of  the  day,  if  it 
did  point  out  a  royal  road  to  fortune.  For  if  one 
examines  the  conditions  of  the  world,  he  will  find  that 
men  seek  different  things.  Many  start  on  the  race 
in  life  to  make  fortunes,  but  this  division  rapidly 
thins  out,  and  some  of  its  members  drop  out  into 
more  or  less  contented  mediocrity.  Others  continue 
longer  in  the  race,  and  devote  all  their  energies  to 
win  it.  Still  the  dropping-out  continues  as  weari- 


THE  RACE  OF  LIFE.  151 

ness  seizes  those  who  make  no  advance,  and  the  few 
continue.  Among  these  a  separation  presently  takes 
place.  A  few  begin  to  approach  their  ideal,  and 
leave  behind  them  a  division  who,  in  spite  of  ill-suc- 
cess, still  keep  at  the  weary  grind,  stepping  on  a 
tread-mill  that  never  raises  them  from  the  level.  The 
winners,  and  they  are  very  few,  grow  rich,  and,  it  is 
to  be  hoped,  have  got  all  the  enjoyment  they  ex- 
pected out  of  their  wealth.  The  losers,  never  hav- 
ing accepted  the  rest  and  even  contentment  of  medi- 
ocrity, suffer  the  miseries  of  defeat,  and  look  back  on 
a  life  of  fruitless  struggle. 

This  is  a  mild  picture  of  the  evils  of  the  thirst  for 
money  and  for  success  based  on  money  making. 
The  vision  of  the  crowd  starting  on  their  race  is  not 
a  pleasant  one, — the  scene  at  the  end  where  the  tri- 
umphs of  selfishness  are  seen  in  contrast  with  the 
disappointments  of  selfishness  is  as  bad, — the  scenes 
along  the  road  where  the  crowd  is  constantly  thin- 
ning off,  and  the  competitors  only  give  up  because 
they  have  to,  is  not  inspiring. 

So  much  for  fhose  to  whom  money  is  everything. 
Theirs  is  not  the  only  contest;  there  is  a  nobler  race 
— a  race  for  success,  too, — but  this  is  the  success  of  a 
true  life,  rightly  led  and  well  employed — a  life  into 
which  troubles  will  come  and  in  which  a  fortune  may 
not  be  made,  but  whic*h  leaves  behind  it  a  memory 
of  work,  of  honesty,  and  of  the  refinement  of  honesty 
termed  honor.  Such  a  life  shows  good  done  to  the 


152  INSPIRATIONS. 


world  in  its  administration  of  scientific  knowledge — 
good  in  its  high  conception  of  devotion  to  "  busi- 
ness," as  pictured  in  the  character  Caleb  Garth  in 
George  Eliot's  novel  "  Middlemarch  " — good  done 
to  individuals  in  the  proper  carrying  on  of  engineer- 
ing works  in  which  numbers  of  laborers  are  em- 
ployed— good  done  to  the  profession  in  the  making 
of  useful  discoveries  and  in  the  announcement  of 
them  to  the  public  as  soon  as  made. 

The  contemplation  of  such  lives  is  a  comfort  and 
an  inspiration.  Energy,  laboriousness  and  conscien- 
tiousness are  their  foundation-stones. 

Perhaps  among  those  who  read  this  book  will  be 
some  who  have  the  high  ideal  of  success  implied  in 
the  ambition  of  becoming  a  Clerk  Maxwell  or  a  Will- 
iam Thomson.  If  such  ambition  has  seized  any 
one,  and  if  he  is  able  to  carry  it  out,  he  is  not  the  one 
for  whom  this  is  written.  This  modest  work  is  not 
designed  for  him, — his  success  will  not  depend  on 
the  author. 

Finally  there  are  many  who  simply  hope  to  find  a 
rational  chance  in  the  struggle  for*  existence,  and 
who  wish  to  make  their  living  in  the  profession,  and 
who  do  not  aspire  to  great  honors. 

So  it  appears  that  from  the  beginning  men  can  be 
classified  by  the  end  they  have  in  view.  The  sad 
failures  come  in  choosing  the  wrong  ends, — the  crim- 
inal failures  in  choosing  wrong  methods  for  any  end. 

A   man   might  choose  to  be  a  high    jumper,  and 


THE  RIGHT  MEANS  TO  A  RIGHT  END.          153 

might  devote  the  energies  of  a  life  to  trying  to  top 
a  six-foot  bar,  and  never  succeed.  His  failure  would 
be  due  to  the  choosing  a  wrong  end. 

Suppose  now  that  we  cut  the  Gordian  knot  and  at 
one  sweep  do  away  with  this  trouble  about  ends. 
Select  no  end  to  be  attained,  but  only  concern  your- 
self with  methods  and  practices.  The  trouble  disap- 
pears. With  honor  and  hard  work  as  watch-words, 
whatever  you  do  will  be  successful,  whether  the 
crowd  appreciates  it  as  such  or  not. 

You  will  see  men  going  ahead  of  you  by  question- 
able methods, — honor  will  prevent  you  from  envying 
them.  You  will  see  others  going  ahead  of  you  by 
superior  work, — interest  and  a  high  ideal  will  tell  you 
to  follow  their  example  and  work  the  harder.  You 
will  see  others  winning  by  high  abilities, — these  jus- 
tice tells  you  to  admire.  Then  as  you  reach  the 
middle  point  of  your  career,  and  are  retrospective, 
you  will  realize  your  mistakes  ;  you  may  feel  that  had 
you  taken  some  other  way  you  would  have  done  bet- 
ter ;  you  may  see  instances  where  a  little  shrewdness 
and  knowledge  of  human  nature  would  have  helped 
you  along  ;  you  may  feel  that  you  should  have  done 
better  ;  but  it  will  be  too  late.  Regrets  are  useless. 
Go  on  as  best  you  may,  and  if  you  can  feel  that  you 
have  saved  your  honor  and  conquered  your  laziness, 
you  have  not  lived  in  vain. 

This  seems  a  poor  ideal,  perhaps,  but  it  is  better 
than  money  making,  pure  and  simple.  It  is  hard  to 


154  HUMAN   NATURE. 


believe  that  you  will  really  work  hard  and  honestly 
and  not  make  some  success. 

But  as  an  electrician  and  electrical  engineer  some 
few  maxims  for  success  may  be  given  as  regards  your 
relations  with  men.  As  the  servant  of  corporations 
you  will  have  intercourse  with  directors  and  business 
executives.  As  engineer  you  will  have  to  deal  with 
laborers  and  foremen  under  your  superintendence. 
You  will  find  rings  and  cliques  among  the  wealthy 
directors  and  among  the  day-laborers  alike,  and  you 
may  be  mixed  up  with  their  cliques,  without  any  voli- 
tion on  your  part.  You  will  come  in  contact  with 
manufacturers  and  perhaps  have  to  criticise  their 
work.  How  can  you  deal  with  such  different  types 
of  humanity  ? 

Human  nature  therefore  must  be  recognized  as  an 
element  in  the  problem  you  have  to  solve.  For  a 
wealthy  business  man  to  be  established  as  president 
of  an  electric  manufacturing  works,  while  not  con- 
versant with  electrical  matters,  may  seem  to  you  an 
anomaly.  It  will  seem  that  a  merchant  should  know 
something  of  the  article  he  deals  in.  But  while  on 
its  face  this  would  appear  to  be  logical,  it  is  not  abso- 
lutely requisite  that  the  merchant  should  possess 
such  knowledge.  The  business  of  the  president  of 
an  electric  manufacturing  company  may  be  to  sell 
the  product  of  the  factory,  to  see  that  its  standard  of 
perfection  is  kept  up  to,  to  look  up  new  avenues  of 
trade.  The  selling  has  no  reference  to  volts  and 


THE   BUSINESS   MANAGER.  155 

amperes, — the  standard  of  perfection  he  takes  care  of 
by  engaging  one  whom  he  understands  to  be  a  capa- 
ble superintendent, — looking  up  new  country  is  a  mat- 
ter of  advertising  and  traveling.  The  less  he  knows 
of  electricity,  and  the  less  interest  he  shows  in  the 
science  and  in  the  materials  used  in  the  dynamos, 
the  more  flattering  is  it  to  his  superintendent.  The 
want  of  interest  in  the  electrical  qualities  of  the  wire 
purchased,  the  ignorance  of  what  the  magnetic  prop- 
erties of  iron,  such  as  reluctance,  are  or  mean,  and 
the  apparent  indifference  to  what  goes  into  the  dyna- 
mos are  due  to  strong  common-sense.  He  realizes 
that  it  is  a  new  order  of  thought  for  him,  and  so  does 
not  try  to  grapple  with  it.  He  feels  that  the  products 
of  his  factory  will  be  criticised  by  those  who  buy 
them,  so  that,  whether  he  wants  it  or  not,  he  will  get 
lots  of  expert  opinion  without  cost  or  trouble. 
Knowing  that  he  cannot  adequately  criticise  from  his 
own  knowledge,  he  will  be  unsparing  in  his  use  of  the 
free  criticism  reaching  him  in  the  shape  of  complaints 
of  customers.  Therefore,  if  his  superintendent  or 
engineer  wishes  to  impose  upon  him,  and  is  so  want- 
ing in  pride  and  honor  as  to  stoop  to  this  course,  it 
will  be  found  a  very  risky  business.  Active  and  suc- 
cessful business  men  in  this  country  are  apt  to  be 
rather  merciless  in  dealing  with  transgressors  subor- 
dinate to  them. 

Often  men   of  this  character  have  an  aggravating 
way  of  throwing  aside  as  of  no  interest  all  that  does 


156  DETAILS  AND  GENERALITIES. 

not  directly  affect  their  business.  This  peculiarity 
must  be  recognized  and  yielded  to.  Commercial  in- 
terests are  apt  to  engender  selfishness.  If  you  are 
an  engineer  under  such  a  president,  realize  that  he 
has  his  good  points, — that  he  is  interested  in  things 
that  are  as  barren  to  your  mind  as  are  farads  and 
henries  to  his.  Above  all,  do  not  be  so  conceited  as 
to  underestimate  the  merit  of  high  business  abilities. 
Your  little  special  knowledge  of  electricity  is  prob- 
ably nothing  to  boast  of.  Do  not  try  to  look  down 
on  a  non-professional  man  ;  his  abilities  and  special- 
ties lie  in  another  direction  from  yours. 

The  very  qualities  which  make  a  man  an  electrician 
by  nature  would  probably  spoil  him  for  a  business 
man.  So  look  with  respect  upon  the  great  organizers 
of  enterprises — those  who  deal  in  great  interests,  and 
who  have  no  disposition  to  look  into  the  minutiae  of 
things,  who  would  distrust  themselves  if  they  did  go 
into  manufacturing  details,  and  would  fear  that  the 
result  of  an  attempt  at  doing  so  would  lead  to  ne- 
glect of  important  things  in  their  department.  Your 
very  fondness  for  details,  and  disposition  to  give  your 
principal  attention  to  them,  feeling  that  the  general- 
ities will  take  care  of  themselves,  is  exactly  what  is 
not  wanted  in  business. 

Human  nature  has  its  vanity,  and  it  is  often  mani- 
fest in  a  disinclination  to  acknowledge  our  own  ignor- 
ance. Sometimes  a  business  manager  or  other  officer 
of  a  company,  whose  life  has  been  spent  in  mercan- 


INDEPENDENCE  AND  CONSIDERATION.         157 

tile  pursuits,  will  undertake  to  pose  as  an  electrician 
after  a  few  months  or  even  weeks  in  the  business  de- 
partment of  an  electrical  concern.  This  is  far  worse 
than  the  other  case  first  described.  How  must  such 
be  dealt  with  ?  It  is  not  necessary  always  to  tell  a 
person  how  little  he  knows,  or  to  offend  his  innocent 
vanity  by  pointing  out  his  errors.  It  is  enough  to  try 
to  lead  him  right,  as  far  as  he  will  let  you.  His  way 
may  be  smoothed  for  him  if  he  will  stand  it.  Avoid 
disputes  with  such, — disputes  will  do  no  good,  and 
will  only  make  trouble  between  you  and  your  supe- 
rior. So  study  human  nature  a  little,  and  do  not  get 
into  fruitless  discussion ;  try  to  keep  your  own  spe- 
cific knowledge  in  the  background  if  necessary,  and 
do  nothing  to  show  how  much  you  know.  If  you  are 
dealing  with  what  appears  to  be  a  very  pretentious 
person,  temper  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb,  and  do 
not  be  too  hard  on  him.  His  position  may  give  him 
the  power  of  being  very  hard  upon  you. 

Independence  is  not  sacrificed  by  such  a  course. 
It  may  be  rather  a  matter  of  courtesy  and  kindness 
that  will  induce  one  to  be  careful  not  to  hurt  the  feel- 
ings of  another  in  such  a  case  as  the  one  pictured 
above. 

Companies  are  often  supposed  to  be  managed  by  a 
board  of  directors  who  meet  from  time  to  time  to 
discuss  its  affairs,  and  pass  resolutions  as  re- 
quired for  its  conduct.  While  they  nominally  are 
the  directors  who  direct  the  company,  usually  there 


158  DIRECTORS. 


is  one  person,  either  an  officer  or  perhaps  only  one 
of  the  board,  who'  is  the  real  manager,  and  who  is 
practically  the  whole  board  in  one.  Directors  are 
often  fond  of  exaggerating  their  importance  to  the 
concern, — they  often  like  to  persuade  themselves  that 
they  are  of  some  use,  when  they  are  not.  Again  you 
may  profitably  study  human  nature.  If  they  visit  the 
works  where  you  are  employed,  do  not  try  to  show 
how  little  you  care  for  them.  If  you  meet  them,  re- 
member that  your  profession  makes  it  your  first  duty 
to  be  a  gentleman,  and  that  nothing  is  more  alien 
to  a  gentleman's  character  than  conceit  or  intoler- 
ance. These  directors  are  apt  to  be  men  of  standing 
in  the  community,  and  often  men  of  high  ability  in 
their  own  particular  ways.  The  ethics  of  your  profes- 
sion tell  you  to  bow  the  head  before  such  masters  as 
Thompson  or  Ra.yleigh, — they  do  not  tell  you  to  put 
on  airs  of  importance  before  those  whose  paths  in 
life  lie  outside  of  the  electrical  field. 

Unfortunately  cliques  and  rings  sometimes  are 
formed  in  companies.  The  engineer  or  superintend- 
ent is  not  to  take  sides  if  he  possibly  can  help  it.  If 
there  are  two  factions  who  try  to  obtain  the  mastery, 
there  is  a  strong  probability  that,  if  the  engineer  or 
superintendent  is  drawn  into  the  fight,  he  will  find 
himself  between  the  upper  and  nether  millstones, — 
he  will  be  apt  to  please  no  one  if  he  makes  special 
efforts  to  please  both  sides, — and  the  end  maybe  the 
loss  of  his  position.  If  he  takes  sides  and  his  party 


DISPUTES  IN  COMPANIES.  159 

is  defeated,  he  need  have  no  uncertainty  as  to  his 
own  future.  If  his  party  wins,  then  his  too  strong 
advocacy  may  bring  about  his  discharge. 

An  engineer  in  such  a  case  has  a  narrow  path  to 
tread,  and  his  only  rule  must  be  to  hold  himself 
absolutely  aloof  from  dissensions.  This  he  must  do 
without  withdrawing  himself  from  observation  or 
seeming  to  avoid  contact  with  those  in  the  dispute. 
If  an  officer  visits  the  works,  the  superintendent  should 
act  precisely  as  if  he  knew  of  no  dispute.  Without 
committing  himself  he  should  meet  his  visitor  and  act 
as  if  everything  was  normal.  The  next  day  some 
director  opposed  in  interest  may  appear.  He  should 
be  received  with  the  same  courtesy.  Thus  neither 
side  can  be  given  just  cause  for  offense,  and  what- 
ever the  result  of  the  supposed  dispute,  the  superin- 
tendent may  be  glad  if  he  can  feel  that  he  is  not  in- 
volved. 

A  difficult  case  has  been  described,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  our  engineer  will  be  spared  such  event- 
uality. But  he  may  become  involved  in  it,  and  if 
he  cares  about  retaining  his  position,  he  will  feel 
justly  anxious. 

'  Another  class  of  persons  he  may  encounter  are 
contractors.  It  often  happens  that  such  people  have 
great  influence  with  corporations.  They  may  do 
work  for  them  and  take  their  pay  in  stock,  thus  get- 
ting a  large  representation  on  the  board.  The  officers 
of  the  company  may  have  leaned  on  them  for  advice 


160  CONTRACTORS. 


and  consultation,  and  so  may  place  great  reliance 
upon  their  opinions.  You  may,  as  engineer,  have  to 
pronounce  judgment  upon  their  work.  Here  again 
you  may  find  yourself  between  two  fires.  If  you  do 
not  approve  the  work,  you  may  incur  the  ire  of  the 
contractor,  and  suffer.  If  you  do  approve  the 
work  in  order  to  avoid  trouble  with  the  contractors, 
you  may  be  doing  an  injustice.  It  is  better  to  suffer 
the  loss  of  your  position  than  to  do  the  latter.  There 
is  always  a  probability  or  possibility  that  such  a  sac- 
rifice may  be  exacted  by  your  conscience.  The 
sacrifice,  if  made,  will  be  its  own  reward  ;  you  need 
not  expect  any  other.  It  will  probably  never  have 
its  merit  recognized  except  by  yourself  and  perhaps 
by  a  few  fellow-sufferers  and  companions  in  misfor- 
tune. So  what  are  you  to  do  in  such  a  case  ? 

No  general  rule  can  be  given.  You  must  be  con- 
scientious. But  sometimes  there  is  danger  of 
supererogation.  You  may  go  unnecessarily  far.  The 
least  display  of  feeling  or  eagerness  to  condemn  is 
wrong  and  out  of  place.  With  absolute  dispassion- 
ateness review  the  work  and  form  a  just  judgment. 
If  your  position  requires  you  to  report  upon  work,  do 
so  with  entire  absence  of  feeling,  and,  with  as  little, 
comment  as  possible,  state  how  things  are.  Do  your 
best  to  avoid  giving  offense.  Let  it  be  seen  that  you 
have  no  bias  and  are  only  doing  your  duty.  Then 
if  the  contractor  takes  offense,  and  is  dishonorable, 
and  has  influence  with  the  company,  you  will  have  to 
suffer.  There  will  be  no  help  for  it. 


THE  CONSCIENTIOUS  COURSE.  161 

But  be  very  cool  and  act  slowly.  When  you  look  back 
on  the  affair  after  the  lapse  of  years  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  your  course  will  still  seem  to  have  been  the  right 
one.  Do  nothing  on  impulse,  and  do  not  set  your 
own  standard  of  right  and  wrong  above  that  of  every 
one  else.  It  is  often  not  only  a  matter  of  conscience 
but  of  judgment.  An  over-scrupulous  man  is  often 
very  unsatisfactory,  because  his  judgment  is  in  abey- 
ance under  the  weight  of  his  conscience.  The  con- 
science of  an  over-scrupulous  person  is  little  better 
than  conceitedness. 

If  you  do  feel  scruples  about  the  way  of  dealing 
conscientiously  with  such  a  case,  consult  some  friend. 
Do  not  shut  yourself  up  in  unhealthy  introspection, 
but  seek  advice,  and  use  it.  Whatever  you  do,  you 
will  have  a  good  chance  of  pleasing  no  one.  If  you 
leave  the  company  in  what  seems  to  you  a  blaze  of 
glory,  you  will  be  apt  to  find  its  brightness  dimin- 
ished after  the  lapse  of  several  years. 

The  engineer  has  to  manage  workmen.  These  are 
also  human  beings,  and  are  as  clique-forming  as  any 
set  of  men — even  as  much  so  as  the  directors  of  a 
company.  But  their  methods  will  not  be  apt  to  af- 
fect an  engineer's  position.  As  he  therefore  feels 
secure  from  the  influence  of  what  these  subordinates 
can  do,  there  is  the  more  need  of  exact  justice  and 
charity  in  dealing  with  them.  There  is  not  for 
a  real  man  one  bit  of  satisfaction  in  discharging  a 
workman  for  a  purely  technical  offense,  or  even  for 


162  DEALING  WITH   WORKMEN. 

a  slight  impatience  or  incivility.  Your  pride  should 
be  in  the  small  number  of  workmen  you  discharge 
for  cause, — your  pride  should  be  hurt  by  a  large  num- 
ber discharged.  You  should  feel  that  this  latter 
shows  you  a  poor  manager  of  men.  Avoid  despot- 
ism as  you  would  a  disease. 

You  may  have  absolute  authority, — you  should 
practice  the  art  of  exercising  it  to  the  fullest  extent 
when  necessary,  and  of  concealing  it  at  all  other 
times.  Workmen  spend  much  of  their  spare  time 
and  thoughts  in  sizing  up  their  superintendents.  If 
you  have  authority  in  your  nature,  they  will  soon  find 
it  out. 

An  engineer  need  not  be  so  sensitive  about  his 
own  authority  as  to  be  unwilling  to  recognize  some 
rights  on  the  part  of  or  some  respect  due  to  officers 
of  the  company  in  the  placing  of  men.  If  a  work- 
man is  put  in  position  at  the  request  of  the  president 
or  of  a  director,  courtesy  requires  that  he  be  con- 
sulted before  such  a  man  is  permanently  suspended. 

Workmen,  being  human,  will  often  try  to  earn 
their  money  as  easily  as  possible — something  their 
employers  also  try  and  generally  succeed  better  at. 
But  they  are  hired  to  put  in  so  many  hours'  work 
a  day,  and  it  is  the  engineer's  duty  to  see  that  they 
do  it.  A  man  running  a  machine  lathe  at  slow  speed 
so  that  he  can  sit  in  a  corner  a  longer  time  between 
the  settings  of  the  tool  for  a  new  cut  would  do  no 
worse  if  he  went  away  half  an  hour  ahead  of  the 


GOOD  AND   BAD  WORKMEN.  163 

whistle.  A  man  who  runs  a  tool  with  so  dull  a  point 
that  it  takes  twice  as  long  to  put  a  finish  on  his  work 
as  if  he  ground  his  tool  properly  is  doing  his  em- 
ployer an  injustice. 

It  is  very  hard  to  get  good  workmen.  Men  are,  on 
the  average,  of  such  low  capacity  that  it  does  require 
about  seven  years  to  make  mechanics  of  the  average 
ones.  Therefore,  with  the  abandonment  of  the  sys- 
tem of  apprentices,  the  supply  of  really  good  work- 
men is  less  than  the  demand.  We  are  becoming 
more  accustomed  to  having  work  done  poorly  or 
slowly  in  our  factories,  the  really  good  mechanic 
not  being  as  easy  to  find  as  he  formerly  was. 


164 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 
• 

READING. 

ENGLISH     TECHNICAL     BOOKS THE     INDEX READING 

A     BOOK      SEVERAL     TIMES — THINKING READING 

AN     INSTRUMENT — TAKING     NOTES — ELECTRICAL 

JOURNALS RANGE  OF    READING DEFINITIONS — 

COLLECTING     A      LIBRARY SCRAP-BOOKS CARD 

AND     BOOK      INDEXES SCRAP-LEAFLETS RAPID 

READING BIOGRAPHIES. 

The  subject  of  reading  cannot  be  adequately 
treated.  So  much  may  be  read  ;  every  book,  even  if 
it  seems  a  repetition  of  some  work  already  read,  will 
add  something  to  the  reader's  stock  of  information. 
The  list  of  electrical  books  is  increasing  constantly. 
But  among  the  many  a  few  standards  still  maintain 
their  position  and  stand  well  above  the  rest. 

Many  technical  books  in  our  language  are  pub- 
lished  in  England,  the  scientific  literature  of  which 
country  is  unfortunately  subject  to  a  very  serious 
fault — one  which  permeates  the  life  of  the  nation  in 
other  directions  also.  England  has  an  organization 
of  examinations  for  degrees.  The  effort  of  her  edu- 
cators has  been  to  codify  education,  and  to  make  all 
the  colleges  tributary  to  certain  standards. 


ENGLISH   BOOKS.  165 

Accordingly,  examinations  in  every  conceivable 
branch  of  knowledge  are  held  at  intervals,  and  to 
these  come  students  from  colleges  all  over  the  land 
as  well  as  students  who  have  not  matriculated  from 
any  college.  They  are  competitors  for  degrees ; 
their  work  has  been  distinctively  devoted  to  passing 
examinations — "exams,"  as  they  term  them — and 
their  scope  or  range  of  study  is  calculated  to  fit  these 
examinations.  For  such  students  many  of  the  scien- 
tific books  are  written.  Students  and  books  alike 
are  stunted  by  the  system. 

When  you  take  up  a  scientific  book  published  in 
England,  look  at  the  title-page.  If  you  there  find 
stated  that  it  is  written  for  or  adapted  for  some  de- 
gree or  course  of  the  London  University,  if  the  word 
"  syllabus  "  occurs  on  the  title-page  or  in  the  preface, 
make  up  your  mind  that  it  will  have  a  very  fixed 
limit.  It  will  be  written  entirely  for  a  certain  exam- 
ination. Anything  outside  of  the  lines,  however  im- 
portant, will  be  omitted.  Such  books  should  be 
looked  on  with  suspicion  as  to  their  value  here. 

A  scientific  book  should  have  an  index.  When 
you  think  of  buying  a  book,  see  if  it  has  a  good  in- 
dex. If  it  has  non2,  then  leave  it.  A  contents  is 
better  than  nothing,  but  cannot  usually  take  the 
place  of  an  index. 

A  good  book  read  and  reread  may  do  more  good 
than  several  different  ones  read  in  succession.  At 
the  beginning,  especially,  it  is  often  useful  to  read  the 


THOUGHT  AND   READING. 


same  book  several  times.  The  real  classics  of  the 
science  will  endure  several  perusals  and  improve  with 
acquaintance.  A  good  test  of  a  book  is  to  see  if  it 
will  endure  this.  If  you  drift  back  to  and  reread  a 
work,  it  speaks  well  for  its  quality. 

Thought  and  reading  must  go  together.  It  has 
been  said  that  an  hour  of  thought  is  worth  many 
hours  of  reading.  This  is  often  true.  Nothing  is 
more  futile  than  to  read  to  the  exclusion  of  thought. 
It  is  often  a  form  of  indolence — a  way  of  hiding  one's 
own  laziness.  What  we  have  read  during  several  hours 
may  be  briefly  thought  over  to  good  effect.  Acquire 
the  habit  of  thinking  intensely  over  facts  that  your 
reading  has  brought  before  you.  Think  over  what  you 
read  until  you  detect  the  weak  points  in  your  knowl- 
edge, and  try  to  supplement  these  points  by  further 
reading. 

Treat  reading  as  an  instrument.  It  is  a  means  of 
reaching  a  desired  end, — mere  reading  is  not  the 
end.  You  must  not  feel  undue  satisfaction  in  hav- 
ing read  so  many  books  or  so  many  pages.  Your 
satisfaction  should  center  in  the  ideas  you  have 
assimilated  and  have  taken  from  the  books. 

Should  one  make  notes  of  their  reading  ?  This 
depends  on  the  individual.  If  you  have  the  proper 
type  of  mind,  you  will  need  comparatively  few  notes. 
Like  the  hero  in  Charles  Reade's  novel,  "  Put  Your- 
self in  His  Place,"  make  your  head  your  note-book. 
A  man  who  has  to  write  everything  down  is  at  a  ser- 
ious disadvantage. 


ELECTRICAL  JOURNALS.  167 

You  must  learn  the  art  of  quick  reference  to  books. 
A  library  of  half  a  dozen  books  will  be  a  good  one 
for  practical  use.  You  must  learn  their  uses  and 
range,  so  that  you  will  know  in  which  one  to  look  for 
anything  you  want  to  find.  It  will  be  excellent  prac- 
tice to  look  up  other  books  than  your  own,  and  study 
the  ground  covered  by  them.  Thus  you  in  some 
sense  make  their  contents  your  own  property, — you 
know  what  each  one  is  good  for. 

The  electrical  journals  should  be  read.  One  is 
enough  if  it  is  of  the  best.  The  advertising  pages 
should  be  run  over  as  well  as  the  reading  matter,  for 
they  tell  what  the  world  is  doing. 

The  reports  of  the  meetings  of  electric  light  asso- 
ciations and  other  societies  of  electricians  are  excel- 
lent matter.  They  not  only  contain  good  informa- 
tion and  valuable  papers,  but  they  also  disclose  what 
others  are  working  at.  They  give  a  standard  for 
rating  one's  own  attainments,  as  in  the  papers  and 
discussions  is  shown  what  other  electricians  are  do- 
ing, and  how  deep  they  go  into  the  science. 

It  will  not  be  necessary  to  keep  your  reading  rig- 
orously to  one  line  of  electrical  work.  You  may  in 
one  book  often  with  benefit  go  over  an  elementary 
treatment  of  the  whole  of  electricity.  As  a  guide  to 
your  work  your  reading  of  course  will  be  more 
specialized. 

Your  reading  must  cover  more  ground  than  elec- 
tricity. You  will  have  to  be  a  mechanical  engineer 


168  KNOWING  BOOKS  THOROUGHLY. 

in  the  broad  sense,  which  is  the  sense  of  knowing 
something  of  chemistry  and  physics,  much  of  the 
strength  of  materials  and  machinery,  and  much  of 
calculations,  graphic,  arithmetical  and  algebraical. 
Your  reading,  therefore,  must  cover  a  wide  field. 
Yet  if  you  could  be  persuaded  to  do  one  thing,  your 
list  of  books  might  be  small.  This  thing  would  be 
to  thoroughly  understand  and  assimilate  everything 
you  read.  It  is  perhaps  too  much  to  ask.  Then  try 
another  system.  Thoroughly  understand  and  learn 
the  first  book  you  read  on  a  given  subject.  Let  such 
book  be  short,  but  when  you  are  through  with  it  know 
it.  Know  one  book  in  arithmetic,  one  in  algebra, 
one  in  mechanics,  one  in  physics,  one  in  chemistry ; 
pick  out  short  ones,  and  you  will  have  laid  a  founda- 
tion which  you  may  congratulate  yourself  on  for 
years  to  come. 

Under  the  head  of  reading  a  few  words  should  be 
said  on  definitions.  A  good  definition  is  something 
to  cling  to.  You  will  find  them  all  too  scarce.  An 
excellent  plan  would  be  for  you,  when  reading  a  book 
on  a  given  subject,  to  learn  by  heart  the  definitions 
of  even  three  or  four  subjects  intimately  connected 
with  it.  In  physics  work,  energy,  force,  momentum  and 
weight  are  such  subjects.  In  chemistry  element,  mole- 
cule, atom,  molecular  weight, — in  mathematics  expo- 
nent, radical,  logarithm, — these  may  be  taken  as  ex- 
amples. Electricity  as  your  specialty  should  give 
you  somewhat  more  definitions. 


EXACT  DEFINITIONS.  169 

Unless  you  have  a  very  retentive  memory,  write 
out  these  definitions  as  you  learn  them.  Do  not  let 
writing  take  the  place  of  memorizing,  but  write  them 
out  and  preserve  them.  Then  from  time  to  time  re- 
turn to.  them,  and  you  will  find  that  they  serve  a 
very  useful  purpose,  presenting  a  skeleton  upon 
which  your  structure  of  facts  will  be  carried.  They 
will  act  as  a  sort  of  memoria  technica  for  your  read- 
ing. Your  constant  recurrence  to  them  during  your 
reading  of  physics,  for  instance,  will  make  them  bring 
back  to  you  the  work  of  the  hours  you  have  spent 
over  it. 

Remember  that  it  is  precisely  in  exactness  of  defi- 
nition that  modern  science  surpasses  the  old.  It  is 
but  a  few  years  since  a  book  was  published  in  New 
York  devoted  to  the  supposed  great  doctrine  of  the 
conservation  of  FORCE.  The  truth  is,  there  is  no 
such  law ;  for  years  it  was  preached  at  us  ;  poor 
Faraday  felt  that  it  was  wrong,  but  with  graceful 
humility  bowed  to  authority  and  accepted  it.  So 
this  conservation  of  force  was  kept  as  a  great  doc- 
trine of  science  until  scientists  learned  to  define — 
learned  what  force  is,  and  that  it  is  not  immortal — 
learned  what  energy  is,  and  that  it  is  immortal — and 
threw  overboard  the  absurdity  that  disturbed  Fara- 
day, and  which  was  quietly  accepted  by  many 
lights  in  science. 

Books  are  expensive.  Ruskin  would  have  a  man 
begin  early  in  life  to  collect  his  library.  He  de- 


170  SCRAP-BOOKS. 


spises  circulating  libraries.  But  you  should  only  go 
half-way  with  him.  Collect  your  library,  and  it  need 
only  be  a  very  small  one,  but  use  circulating  libraries 
to  the  best  of  your  opportunities.  They  are  espe- 
cially to  be  commended  for  providing  scientific  jour- 
nals. A  dozen  books  supplemented  by  intelligent 
use  of  a  library —circulating,  society  or  college  col- 
lection —will  carry  you  a  long  way. 

Owning  but  a  small  library,  you  will  be  in  a  fair 
way  to  know  the  books  composing  it  thoroughly, — 
and  this  thoroughness  of  little  knowledge  rather  than 
thinness  of  much  knowledge  is  the  sermon  which  this 
book  is  designed  to  preach. 

As  just  suggested,  the  leading  electrical  journals 
may  be  read  or  looked  over  each  week.  It  is  well  to 
have  the  best  of  them  your  own  and  at  your  disposal. 
But  often  in  the  daily  papers,  magazines  and  else- 
where, little  notes  of  interest  electrically  are  en- 
countered. Certain  data,  such  as  resistance  and  volt- 
age of  different  arc  lamps  or  batteries,  will  be  seen 
in  electrical  journals,  or,  perhaps,  will  be  specially 
ascertained  for  some  purpose.  It  is  a  pity  to  let 
such  matter  escape.  Scrap-books  or  leaves  are  the 
proper  repository  for  them. 

With  scrap-books  every  one  is  familiar,  but  it  is  not 
one  in  a  hundred  that  arranges  them  systematically. 
The  best  way,  all  things  considered,  is  to  paste  in  all 
cuttings,  or  write  in  any  important  item,  without  any 
attempt  at  order. 


THE   CARD   INDEX.  171 

The  next  thing  is  an  index.  This  may  be  made  on 
the  card  principle  if  the  book  assumes  size  enough. 
Or,  if  the  scrap-book^is  small,  a  good  contents  and  a 
complete  index  for  it  can  be  written.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  make  the  alphabetical  division  go  further  than 
the  first  letter.  Thus  all  the  A's  can  be  grouped  to- 
gether in  the  order  they  come  in,  and  the  same  can  be 
done  for  all  the  other  letters.  If  you  make  a  card 
index,  then  you  can,  as  one  scrap-book  after  another 
is  added  to  your  list,  simply  keep  up  the  index,  the 
one  answering  for  any  number  of  books. 

If  you  start  a  card  index,  you  may  very  well  include 
in  it  references  to  important  points  treated  in  books. 
Thus  under  "curve,  characteristic"  any  number  of 
references  to  books  could  be  given.  This  practice 
would  obviate  in  many  cases  the  writing  of  notes  in 
the  scrap-book,  for  of  course  it  will  not  do  to  destroy 
books  by  cutting  scraps  from  them.  A  good  practice, 
if  you  wish  to  carry  out  this  idea,  is  to  carry  a  dozen 
cards  with  you  when  you  go  to  a  library,  or  have 
them  near  you  when  reading  at  home,  and  enter  on 
them  any  references  which  it  seems  likely  will  be  use- 
ful. A  fountain  pen  of  the  anti-blotting  kind  is  use- 
ful for  this  sort  of  work. 

Study  to  use  cards  only  for  really  good  references  ; 
do  not  put  down  indifferent  things,  or  you  will  run 
into  the  danger  of  becoming  a  card  collector  only, 
and  have  no  time  for  anything  else.  The  card  index 
must  be  servant,  not  master — a  means  for  an  end,  and 
not  itself  the  end  sought  for. 


172  PRESERVATION   OF  CUTTINGS. 

The  handwriting  for  cards  should  be  clear  and 
good.  Every  one  must  be  written  out  very  carefully, 
as  bad  writing  will  disfigure  the  collection  greatly.  A 
very  open  back  hand  is  excellent. 

Scraps  may  also  be  preserved  on  leaves.  For  this 
purpose  a  quantity  of  sheets  of  paper  cut  to  uniform 
size  and  of  good  quality  for  being  pasted  on  is  re- 
quired. A  single  scrap  or  cutting,  or  more  than  one 
of  very  closely  related  scraps,  go  on  a  single  sheet, 
Only  one  side  is  pasted  on.  Holders  for  these 
are  made  by  doubling  a  piece  of  brown  paper  a  little 
over  twice  the  size  of  the  leaves.  The  latter  may  be 
seven  by  nine  inches  or  thereabouts.  Each  cover 
may  be  numbered,  and  will  hold  twenty  or  thirty 
leaves.  Each  sheet  is  numbered  individually,  and  is 
marked  with  its  cover's  number.  A  general  index 
gives  the  desired  reference  to  cover  number  and  sheet 
number. 

Another  way  is  to  put  a  title  on  each  cover  and  put 
into  it  scraps  coming  under  such  title,  which  must  be 
quite  a  general  one.  In  this  case  an  index  may  be 
made  for  each  of  the  little  portfolios. 

There  is  one  trouble  with  scraps.  They  are  apt 
to  lose  value  year  by  year.  The  information 
contained  in  them  either  becomes  antiquated  and  use- 
less, or  it  becomes  so  well  learned  by  frequent  refer- 
ence, that  you  need  no  scrap-book  reference.  This 
is  merely  one  development  or  phase  in  the  art  of  car- 
rying your  note-book  between  your  shoulders. 


THE.  INDEX  RERUM,  173 

The  best  advice  would  seem  to  be  this — to  collect 
scraps  or  to  make  up  an  index  rerum,  as  the 
general  card  index  may  be  termed,  always  with  the 
exercise  of  great  discrimination,  and  to  collect  and 
note  rather  too  little  than  too  much. 

The  index  rerum  or  card  index  of  things  may  be 
made  to  apply  to  everything  you  do.  When  working 
at  experimental  chemistry  you  may  encounter  inter- 
esting points.  These  may  be  referred  always  or  al- 
most always  to  some  part  of  the  text-book  or  of  some 
book  on  chemistry.  Then  the  insertion  of  a  card 
reference  to  the  text-book  in  the  index  will  fix  the 
fact  for  future  use.  Thus  a  book  is  made  subsidiary 
to  chemical  work,  and  supplies  the  requisite  for  in- 
dexing your  work.  Your  own  private  notes  are  apt 
to  be  of  little  value  until  you  advance  pretty  far  in 
the  profession.  Refer  if  possible  to  books. 

There  are  two  ways  of  reading.  One  is  to  cover 
as  much  ground  as  possible.  Every  book  is  more  or 
less  diffuse,  and  much  can  be  skipped.  Unless  you 
feel  that  you  have  a  very  vigorous  understanding  and 
analytical  powers,  a  dangerous  liberty  will  be  taken 
if  skipping  is  indulged  in.  The  best  parts  may  be 
lost,  or  by  being  gone  over  so  lightly  may  fail  to  be- 
come fixed  in  the  mind.  Here  a  distinction  exists 
between  reading  and  studying.  The  latter  should 
aim  at  completeness  in  degree,  not  so  much  at  extent 
to  be  covered.  But  reading  may  vary  in  amount 
done  according  to  the  topic.  It  is  futile  to  read 


174  SELECTIVE  READING. 

some  books  rapidly.  They  have  to  be  studied  al- 
most word  for  word. 

As  one  advances  in  any  study,  reading  can  be  done 
more  rapidly.  A  good  rule  to  begin  with  is  to  read 
slowly  and  carefully.  After  good  advance  has  been 
made  in  the  science,  selective  or  discriminative  read- 
ing can  be  indulged  in  ;  in  other  words,  one  can  take 
up  a  book  and  skim  through  it,  going  lightly  over  the 
parts  not  directly  appertaining  to  his  wants,  and  giv- 
ing more  attention  to  the  sections  of  most  perti- 
nency. 

Perhaps  the  plan  of  this  book  may  permit  a  slight 
digression  here  in  favor  of  some  biographical  read- 
ing. If  you  wish  to  learn  the  gospel  of  labor  from 
the  best  preachers  thereof,  read  some  biographies 
Read  the  lives  of  such  men  as  Faraday,  who  could 
have  made  a  very  large  fortune  in  his  profession  if 
he  had  confined  himself  to  commercial  work.  VN  ith 
such  a  prospect  before  him,  one  which  would  ordi- 
narily be  called  brilliant,  and  which  is  known  to  have 
been  of  a  nature  to  excite  the  ambition  of  almost 
any  one,  he  voluntarily  relinquished  it,  and  elected  to 
devote  himself  to  pure  science.  This  he  did  for  the 
rest  of  his  career,  and  so  made  himself  a  benefactor 
of  the  human  race.  It  was  a  sacrifice,  and  a  noble 
one. 

Read  the  beautiful  life  of  Clerk  Maxwell,  and  see 
how  his  mind  from  earliest  youth  was  of  a  mathemat- 
ical and  scientific  bent.  The  story  of  his  amicable 


CLERK  MAXWELL. 


BIOGRAPHIES.  177 


nature  and  happy  disposition  joined  to  profound 
mathematical  abilities  is  of  the  deepest  interest. 

Other  biographies  of  great  scientists  preach  the 
same  gospel  over  and  over  again.  It  is  work  always 
that  tells — all  were  workers.  Newton,  Davy,  Henry, 
found  no  royal  road  to  success  and  fame.  All  they  got 
was  the  fruit  of  hard  work  and  of  hard  thinking.  They 
are  your  examples.  Hard  thinking  helped  them. 
They  had  hardly  any  library  of  reference  books  to 
appeal  to  ;  they  had  no  luxury  of  reading  such  as  the 
present  generation  enjoy.  Learn  from  them  that 
thinking  as  well  as  reading  is  work,  and  that  to  be 
worth  anything  it  must  be  thoroughly  done. 

So  do  not  let  reading  supplant  thinking  ;  do  not 
let  reading  prevent  you  from  thinking  for  yourself, — 
rather  let  reading  be  the  incentive  to  thought. 

Besides  biographies  there  are  books  which  contain 
anecdotes  of  the  world's  thinkers  and  workers,  and 
these  will  be  interesting  reading.  Such  a  book  is 
Smiles'  "Self-Help." 

From  biographical  works  and  those  containing  per- 
sonal anecdotes  inspiration  can  be  drawn.  If  they 
only  teach  that  an  uphill  road  is  before  you,  that  the 
best  and  greatest  of  mankind  had  to  climb  it  step  by 
step,  that  there  is  no  easy  way  to  a  true  knowledge 
of  science,  that  unceasing  work  was  the  life  and  de- 
light of  the  great  ones  of  the  world, — if  this  much  is 
taught  by  such  books,  read  them. 

They  should  have  one  of  two  effects  ;  they  should 


178  THE  INVETERATE   READER. 

frighten  you  out  of  science,  something  which  may  be 
very  desirable  and  conducive  to  your  own  good  ;  or 
they  should  cause  you  to  enter  the  portals  of  science 
with  a  determination  to  be  a  slave  for  years. 

You  probably  will  not  be  a  slave.  You  will  make 
your  living  and  may  even  be  a  successful  electrician 
without  such  labor, — but  with  labor  you  will  be  a  suc- 
cessful man. 

An  inveterate  reader  is  often  one  afflicted  with  a 
peculiar  form  of  laziness.  You  must  be  a  doer,  and 
reading  must  be  a  means  for  the  end  of  doing.  So 
for  you  to  boast  of  having  read  so  many  books  in  a 
year  may  indicate  a  defect,  not  a  merit. 


179 


CHAPTER  XIX. 
ETHICS. 

PROFESSIONAL    LIFE THE    GENTLEMAN TRUTH,    JUS- 
TICE     AND      HONOR EXAMPLES     OF     SUCCESSFUL 

LIVES BRUSH DOLBEAR GLLCHER LODGE 

PACINOTTI ELIHU      THOMPSON CONCLUSION. 

Every  life  has  its  specific  rules  of  action  in  its  re- 
lations to  the  rest  of  the  world,  which  rules  may  be 
comprised  under  the  heading  of  ethics.  These  are  the 
rules  of  honor  and  propriety,  which  tell  us  what  our 
profession  calls  on  us  to  do  in  certain  cases. 

Without  preaching  a  sermon  it  is  hard  to  speak  of 
ethics.  It  must,  however, be  attempted.  Perhaps  in 
this  connection  the  reader  may  be  willing  to  go  a 
step  further  and  to  accept  as  commentary  on  the  eth- 
ics of  professional  life  the  early  histo-y  of  a  few  dis- 
tinguished scientists.  They  can  act  as  a  conclusion 
to  what  precedes,  and  justify  some  of  the  views  which 
have  been  taken.  Examples  could  be  multiplied  in- 
definitely, for  the  biography  of  scientific  men  is  full 
of  such  lives  as  those  noted  below. 

Be  a  gentleman.  This  is  the  first  advice  to  be 
given  to  any  one  in  any  position  in  life.  But  here 
you  are  entering  the  profession  which  embraced  or 


180  TRUTH  AND  JUSTICE. 

embraces  in  its  ranks  such  men  as  Faraday,  Clerk 
Maxwell  and  Sir  William  Thomson.  You  are  to  be 
in  their  company  hereafter, — act  as  if  you  were  in  the 
presence  of  the  true  "  immortals,"  who  have  created 
the  science  of  electricity. 

Be  true.  If  you  have  for  months  thought  over  an 
idea  and  worked  up  some  invention  only  to  find  that 
it  is  useless,  abandon  it.  Do  not  try  to  deceive  any 
one  as  to  its  value.  Be  truthful  even  to  yourself,  and 
do  not  let  self-interest  persuade  you  that  anything  is 
right  which  is  not,  or  that  anything  has  value  which 
has  not.  Many  a  promoter  of  worthless  enterprises 
satisfies  his  conscience  by  first  getting  it  persuaded 
of  the  worth  of  his  schemes  ;  then  he  can  mis- 
lead others  with  less  trouble  of  said  conscience. 

Do  not  be  ob'stinate.  From  lowest  workman  to 
the  least  scientific  business  man  whom  you  come  in 
contact  with,  every  one  can  tell  you  something.  If 
a  pay-master  teaches  you  to  count  money  rapidly,  you 
have  learned  something.  The  coal  shoveller  can 
show  you  how  to.  pick  up  the  last  bit  of  coal  from  the 
floor  by  the  quick  jerk  of  his  shovel.  Do  not  be  too 
obstinate  to  learn  from  every  one.  If  in  the  wrong 
about  anything,  be  quick  to  see  and  acknowledge  it, 
and  learn  what  is  correct  as  soon  as  possible. 

Be  just.  If  you  have  achieved  an  important  result 
aided  by  others,  give  them  due  credit.  Never  be 
guilty  of  the  meanness  and  injustice  of  absorbing  the 
results  of  another's  work.  Here  we  are  brought  face 
to  face  with  another  motto,  namely  : 


HONESTY— EXAMPLES  FROM  LIFE.  181 

Be  honest.  An  invention  is  the  property  of  the 
maker,  unless  by  special  contract  it  is  otherwise  de- 
termined. A  stolen  invention  when  patented  implies 
not  only  injustice  and  stealing,  but  also  perjury,  for 
a  patentee  has  to  take  a  solemn  oath  that  he  was  the 
original  inventor.  Never  take  a  commission  for 
influencing  the  purchase  of  goods  by  your  em- 
ployer, whether  individual  or  company.  If  you  do, 
you  will  make  yourself  the  slave  of  the  person  whose 
goods  you  have  recommended,  arid  will  place  yourself 
in  his  power.  Act  purely  for  the  interest  of  your 
employer.  You  will  lose  no  money  by  doing  this, — 
you  may  lose  the  making  of  money  by  it, — but  be- 
tween these  two  things  there  is  a  wide  distinction. 

Charles  Francis  Brush  stands  as  one  of  America's 
foremost  electrical  engineers.  Born  in  1849  ;  in  1862, 
when  thirteen  years  old,  he  began  experimenting  with 
batteries  and  magnets  ;  two  years  later  he  took  up 
the  construction  of  microscopes  and  telescopes,  even 
grinding  the  lenses  himself.  Induction  coils  and  elec- 
trical apparatus  for  turning  gas  on  and  off,  and  light- 
ing it  in  street  lamps,  were  part  of  his  work  at  this 
early  age.  He  completed  in  two  and  one-half  years 
the  regular  high-school  course  ordinarily  requiring 
four  years,  entered  the  University  of  Michigan,  and 
graduated  one  year  ahead  of  his  class.  Here  we  see 
the  boy  emphatically  the  father  of  the  man. 

Professor  A.  E.  Dolbear  of  Tufts  College,  who 
in  inventing  the  telephone  ran  a  close  race  with 


182  EXAMPLES  FROM   LIFE. 

Alexander  Graham  B^ll,  while  \vorkinginapistol  fac- 
tory, took  up  electricity  at  the  age  of  seventeen.  He 
afterwards  became  a  school  teacher,  then  entered  a 
locomotive  works,  and  at  last,  when  twenty-six  years 
old,  managed  to  enter  college,  having  prepared  him- 
self for  it  by  studying  in  the  evenings  while  working 
in  the  Springfield  Armory.  He  graduated  at  the  age 
of  twenty-nine,  years  older  than  most  college  gradu- 
ates. While  an  undergraduate  he  invented  a  mag- 
neto-telegraph. 

The  life  of  Thomas  A.  Edison  tells  of  long  nights 
of  labor.  When  a  boy  he  practiced  telegraphic 
operating  assiduously,  sometimes  all  night.  When 
his  chance  came  he  was  prepared  to  take  full  advan- 
tage of  it.  He  was  only  a  boy  when  he  invented  his 
automatic  repeater. 

R.  J.  Giilcher  of  Austria,  one  of  the  leading  electri- 
cal engineers  of  the  Continent,  when  but  twenty-three 
years  of  age  was  in  charge  of  a  small  machine-shop 
'in  his  father's  cloth  factory.  Three  years  later  he 
made  it  grow  to  be  a  large  iron  foundry  and  machine 
factory.  In  1878  he  bought  a  three-lamp  lighting 
plant  of  Siemens  &  Halske.  He  had  some  trouble 
with  the  arc-lamp  regulators.  This  started  him  into 
electricity.  He  invented  new  lamps  and  dynamos, 
and  elaborated  the  circuits  of  distribution.  He  is 
sometimes  termed  the  inventor  or  discoverer  of  the 
method  of  dividing  the  electric  light. 

Professor  Oliver  Lodge  went  into  business  with  his 


EXAMPLES   FROM  LIFE. 


father  at  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  remained  so  for 
some  years.  Now  and  then  reading  an  "  English  Me- 
chanic," or  an  article  in  the  "  Penny  Clyclopedia,"  we 
find  him  attending  finally  a  course  of  six  lectures 
by  Tyndall,  and  his  latent  scientific  bent  was  aroused. 
He  took  a  private  course  in  elementary  chemistry. 
Evening  classes  in  chemistry  were  next  attended.  At 
last  by  working  at  odd  hours  he  managed  at  the  age 
of  twenty  to  enter  the  London  University  course,  and 
four  years  later  got  his  degree  of  B.Sc.,  and  two 
years  later  he  was  made  a  Doctor  of  Philosophy. 
Here  again  is  a  story  of  night  work  and  of  struggling 
upwards  through  the  greatest  difficulties. 

Antonio  Pacinotti,  nineteen  years  of  age,  built  a 
motor  with  a  ring  armature,  antedating  the  Gramme 
ring.  His  invention  is  cited  often,  and  the  Gramme 
armature  is  often  termed  the  Pacinotti  ring. 

Elihu  Thompson  at  eleven  years  of  age  made  a 
frictional  electric  machine  from  description  only, 
never  having  seen  one.  All  through  his  school  period 
he  worked  at  mechanics  and  made  apparatus,  using 
the  crudest  possible  tools.  He  made  many  pieces  of 
electrical  apparatus,  batteries,  etc.,  and  graduated 
from  the  high  school  at  seventeen  years  of  age. 
After  this  he  constantly  made  apparatus  of  all  kinds, 
while  acting  as  assistant  professor  and  professor  in 
the  same  high  school.  His  splendid  achievements  in 
electrical  engineering  have  since  these  early  days 
won  him  world-wide  fame. 


184  RESUME. 


The  lives  of  such  men  are  a  commentary  on  this 
book.  In  them  we  see  an  early  taste  for  science  ;  in 
boyhood  they  invent  or  construct  scientific  apparatus. 
The  days  being  necessary  for  them  to  earn  their  liv- 
ings in,  the  evenings  or  whole  nights  are  devoted  to 
study  and  work.  They  goon,  and  win  their  position. 
Some  reach  high  positions  in  mathematics  ;  some  study 
chemistry  while  little  more  than  boys  ;  some  become 
engineers.  All  do  it  by  a  devotion  to  science  and  by 
hard  and  unceasing  work.  Some  have  no  teachers  ; 
others  with  meager  enough  education  supplement  it 
by  work  in  the  night  schools,  or  by  attending  science 
lectures.  The  few  lives  noted  are  but  a  sample. 
The  engineering  ranks  are  full  of  such  men. 


INDEX. 


PAGE. 

ADAPTABILITY  for  professional 

life 27 

Agassiz,  Louis 20 

Age 15,16 

Alrieri,  Vittorio 87 

Algebra 30-33 

Ampere's  law 66 

Analytical  geometry 86 

Apparatus  for  chemistry 54 

Apprentice  work  for  students,  92, 93 

Arithmetic 30 

Arithmetic  of  chemistry 49,  50 

Ayrton's  "Practical  Electricity"   64 

BAD  PRACTICE  in  electric  work,    75 

Batteries,  home-made 64 

Battery  action,  chemistry  of . ..     52 

Battery,  standard 63 

Begin,  how  to 15 

Bell,  Alexander  Graham 182 

Biographical  reading 174,  175 

Blue-print  paper 83 

Blue-stone  in  batteries 51 

Boiler  rooms ...   127 

Books,  English  technical.. . .  104,  165 

Books,  indexes  necessary  in 165 

Books,  quick  reference  to 167 

Boys.C.  V 60 

Boys,  C.  V.,  as  a  mechanic 72 

Boys' natural  tastes 17,18 

Brush,  Charles  Francis 28,  181 

BURS,  so-called 133, 134 

Building  operations 124, 125 

Business  man,  the 156 

CADETS  of  the  profession 131 

Calculus ..    80 

Card  indexes 171,  172 

Careless  measurements 26,  27 

Caveats:  their  uselessness.,140,  141 

Character  to  be  studied 17 

Chemical  experiments,  simple. 52-54 
Chemical  reactions,  every-day.    48 

Chemistry  47-59 

Chemistry,  abstract  of  ground 
to  be  covered  in 54,  55 


PAGE. 

Chemistry,  danger   of   experi- 
ments in 48,  50 

Chemistry,  difficulty  of  simple 

experiments  in 47,48 

Chemistry,  mathematics  of...  .35,  36 

Chemistry,  philosophy  of 56 

Chemistry,  precautions  in 50 

Chemistry,      qualitative     and 

quantitative 57, 58 

Cliques 158,  159 

Coaching  students 10 1 

Coal  as  source  of  energy 108 

Coal  consumption  in  a  station  .  109 

College  apparatus 102 

College  course  not  necessary!02, 103 

College  education 98-103 

College,  time  required  for 98 

Combustion,  chemistry  of  ....    49 

Companies,  disputes  in 158, 159 

Competitors,  your  future 28 

Complaints  of  customers 130, 131 

Concealment 22 

Conceit 158 

Condensers  . : 66 

Conscientiousness 161 

Consideration  for  ignorance...  157 
Constructing  engineer,  the..  128-1 28 

Contentment 17 

Contractors 124 

Contractors,  dealing  with..  159,  160 

Contractors,  enmity  of 160 

Cornell    University,    notes    on 

electrical  course  in 105 

Courtesy 181 

Courtesy  in  difficult  positions. .  159 

DAVY,  SIR  HUMPHREY 175 

Dealing  with  the  public....  130,  131 

Definitions  in  physics 41 

Definitions:  their  use 168, 169 

Descriptive  geometry 81 

Details  :  their  importance  76 

Development  of  an  idea  not 

invention 187 

Differentiation  of  station  and 

constructing  engineers 185 


186 


INDEX. 


PAGE. 

Difficulties,  solving  86,  87 
Difficulties  to  be  encountered 
in  the  profession  14 
Dimensions  of  physical  quanti- 
ties, theory  of  42,  43,  45,  46 
Directors,  boards  of  157,  153 
Doing  anything  electrical  15 
Dolbear,  Prof.  A.  E  181  ,  182 
Drawing                                        77-85 

PAGE. 

Electricity,  experimental  study 
of  59 
Electricity,  static  64-66 
Electricity  the  science  of  meas- 
urement        60 
Electric  workers  everywhere..    25 

Electrometer,  Thomson  weight    65 
Ends,  wrong  and  right  152,  153 
Energies  of  nature  108 
Energy                                                41 

Drawing  at  night  82,  83 
Drawing,    catalogue    cuts   as 

Energy  in  electric  circuit  42 
Engineer,  relation  of,  to  scientist    13 
Engineer,  the  servant  of  cor- 
porations    154 
Engines,      preferences      for 
spec  al                                     111   112 

Drawing,    conventional     sym- 
bols in  84 
Drawing,  ink  for  80 
Drawing    in    laboratory  note- 
books                                        79   80 

Drawing  instruments,  care  of  .  .     8'i 
Drawing,  neatness  in  79,  80 
Drawing  paper,  cross-ruled  ....     81 
Drawing,  practical  notes  on..  79,  8-3 
Drawing,  practice  in  free-hand     78 
Drawing,  scale  for  free-hand.  .  .     80 

Engines,  selection  of  126,  127 
Erection  of  plants  120 
Ethics  179-184 

Examinations  in  England  If  5 
Examples  from  life  181,  184 
Executive  ability  133,  184 

Drawing,  shades  and  shadows  81,82 
Drawing,    sitting    or  standing 
position  in  82 
Drawings  of  descriptive  geom- 
etry problems  81,82 
Drawing,  stencils  and  rubber 
types  in  84 
Drawings,  up-to-date  effects  in,    85 
Drawing,  utility  of,  to  electrical 
engineer  78 
Dynamo   building  and  design- 
ing                          .               115  116 

FACTORIES,  expansion  of  small.   121 
Fac  ories,  range  of  work  in.  114,  115 
Factories,  small  118 
Faraday,  Michael.12,  13,  29,  174,  ISO 
Fields  of  work  10 
Force  :  wr  ng   doctrine  of  its 
conservation  169 
Friends  as  teachers             .      86,  87 

GALVANOMETER  62,  63 

Galvanometer,  tangent  63 
Gentleman,  the  ISO,  181 
Geometry                                   88  84 

Dynamos  and  motors,  different 
grades  of  118 

ECONOMY,  real  110 
Edison  Thomas  A                   29    182 

Geometry,  analytical  86 
Geometry,  descriptive    ..  81 
George  Eliot                                     152 

Glass,  transparency  of  89 
Graduates  of  colleges,  unplaced  106 
Gravity  actuating  energy  107 
Giilcher,R.  J  182 

HARVARD    COLLEGE  :    entrance 
course  in  physics    60 
Heat,  physics  of  40 

Efficiency  of  station  :   how  de- 
termined    183 

made             P            '               60-64 

Electrical  engineer,  the  10-12 
Electrical  factory  work  for  stu- 
dents    92 
Electrician  should  be  a  mechan- 
ic       71 

Honesty  181 
Honor  and  honesty  77 
Humanity,  dealing  with  1S4 
Human  nature  154 

IDLENESS  ...                                ..26 

Electrician,  the  self-educated  .  .     10 
Electrician,  work  of  the  11 
Electricity  a  mystery  146 
Electricity  at  home  59-07 

INDEX. 


187 


PAGE. 

Ignorance,  how  to  treat  your 
own            24,25 

PACK. 

Managing  workmen,  129,130,131,132- 
Manufacturing  engineer,  the  1  14-122 
Materials,  testing  of  121,  122 

Illumination,  evenness  of  89 
Importance  of  small  things  21 
Improper  use  of  dynamos  and 
motors  113,119 
Improvements    in  electric  ma- 
chinery    119 
Impulse,  acting  on  161 

Mathematics  in  school  69 
Maxwell,  J.  Clerk,  13,  29,  142, 
152,  174,180 
Means  and  methods  instead  of 
ends...  153 
Mechanical  engineer  as  electri- 

Independence  157 
Index  rerum                            171-173 

Indolence  of  reading  166 
Inductive  system  of   studying 
physics  43,44 

Mechankal  engineering  68-76 
Mechanical  engineering  in  col- 
leges       72 

Intolerance  158 

Mechanical    engineering  :     its 
field  69,  70 

Inventing  136-141 
nvention  and  construction.  137,  138 
nvention,  commercial  aspects 
of  138 

Mechanical  engineer,  the  73 
Mechanical  engineer,  the  work 
of  the                                        70  71 

Mechanical  work  and  the  engi- 
neer       24 
Mechanical  work,  examples  of 
extremes  in  73,  74 
Mechanics  of  electricity  42 
Mechanics,  rarity  of  good  163 
Mechanics,  selective  processes 
of  147 
Mechanic,  the  true  and  false..  71,  72 

nvention,  fixing  date  of  141 
nvention,  practical  view  of  .138,139 
nvention,  restrictions  on  138 
nvention,  success  of  an  140 
nvention,  what  constitutes  187,  138 
nventor's  disappointments  139 
nventor,  the  qualified  136 
n  vestigations,  value  of  13 
nvestigators,  independent  ....  146 

JUDGMENT  128 

Meter  bridge  61,  62 

Meters,  electric                           .  120 

Justice  180 

"  Middlemarch"  152 
Mistakes,  realization  of  153 
Money,  a  low  ideal  150,  151 
Motors  and  dynamos,  different 
grades  of  118 
Motors,  badly  made                       116 

KNOWLEDGE,  thoroughness   of 
little             .          .                       170 

LABORATORY  WORK  in  factories  122 
Leakage  of  lines  of  force  117 

NECESSARY  KNOWLEDGE  17 
Newton,  Sir  Isaac  175 

OBJECT  of  book..        .                      14 

Library,  the  circulating.    ...88.170 
Life,  examples  from  23,  24 
Life,  the  ideal  151.  152 
Life,  the  race  of  150-152 
Light,  physicsof  40 
Lodge,  Oliver  65,  182.  183 

Observation:  its  value  to  scien- 
tists.                                               20 

Observation  of  machinery  74 

Logarithms  t.  ..32,  83 
Losses  in  steam  practice  112,  113 

Ohm'slaw  85 
One  idea,  men  of  136,  137 

MACHINE  DESIGNING  73.74 

One-sidedness  23,24 
Original  investigations  142-149 

Machinery  and  tools 70 .  7 1 

Magnetic  circuit,  the 6G,  117 

Magnetic  leakage  116,  117 

Magnetism,  study  of 66,  67 


PACINOTTI,  ANTONIO 183 

Packing  for  piston  rods 113 

Papers,  daily,  utility  of  reading  170 


188 


INDEX. 


PACK.  PACK. 

Patent  attorneys 140       Regrets,  useless 168 

Patent,  claims  limit  the  scope  Re-issue  decisions 140 

of  a 140  Researches,  publication  of.  .147,  148 

Patenting  inventions 136        Resistance  coi Is 62,  63 

Patents,  advantage  of  early  ap-  Revolutions  in  engineering 112 

plication  for 141        Rings 153,159 

Pencils,  how  to  sharpen &3        Ruskin,  John 26,169 

Persistence 27 

Photometric  observations  ...  83,  39        SAL-AMMONIAC  in  batteries 61 

Physics 8S-46        Scholarships 101 

Physics,  how  to  study 43,  44        Schools,  pupils  in 89,  90 

Physics,  mathematics  in 45,46        Science  in  schools 89 

Physics  of  electricity 43        Science,  Napoleons  of 147 

Physics,    study  of,    by   experi-  Scientist,  work  of  the 18 

ment 44,45       Scrap-books 170 

Pipes  for  steam 128  Scraps,  preserving,  on  leaves  172,173 

Plant,  electrical,  is  a  unit 125        "  Self-Help,"  Smiles' 175 

Plants,  how  to  obtain  records  Selfishness 151 

of 127,128       Sentences,  short  and  long 149 

Positions  for  students,  difficulty  Shades  and  shadows 81,  82 

in  finding 94       Shop-work 74 

Powersoften 87       Sketching,  pen  or  pencil 80 

Practical  life 142  Society,  membership  of  an  en- 
President,  criticisms  of 155,156           gineering 148 

President  of  companies 154-156  Sodium    bicaroonate,    experi- 

Problems  in  construction 119  ment  with 68 

Problems  in  electrical  engineer-  Statement,  clearness  of,  in  writ- 
ing  11,12            ing 148,149 

Progress  of  the  self-taught  en-  Station:  a  contrivance  for  pro- 

gineering  student 16  ducing  electrical  energy..  109,  110 

Publication  of  researches. .  .147,  148        Station  engineer,  the VJ'.'-l-5 

Pupils  in  schools,  tastes  of..   ..     89        Station  reports,  errors  in 110,111 

"  Put  Yourself  in  His  Place." ..  166        Stations,  planning 125 

Steam  engineering 107-118 

QUALITIES     of     station     engi-  Steam-engine :     its     imperfec- 

neer  1^9,  180  tion  ...    108,109 

Questions,  asking  and  answer-  Steam,  high-pressure 126 

ing 21,  22        Stoichiometry 60 

Students'  courses  at  factories, 

REACTIONS,  chemical 49  schedules  of 96,  97 

Reade,  Charles 166        Studies,  early 16 

Reader,  the  inveterate 178       Studying  alone 87 

Reading 164-173        Studying  and  reading 173,  174 

Reading  and  re-reading...  165,166       Success 150-163 

Reading  and  thought 166        Success,  qualities  for 17 

Reading  an  instrument 163  Superintendent,   duties  of   sta- 

Reading  electrical  journals  ....  167  tion . . . .  t 132,  133,  184,  135 

Reading,  specialized  or  not  167, 168 

Reading,  taking  notes  of 166  TAKING  sides  in  disputes  ...153,159 

Reading  thoroughly .   .168       Teacher,  advantage  of  a 86 

Reading,  two  methods  of... 178, 174        Teacher,  qualities  of  a  good 91 

Records,  forgotten 146       Teachers 86-91 

Records,  incorrect Ill        Teachers,  positions  as 101 

Recreation  in  work 16       Teachers,  scarcity  of  good 90 

Reduction  of  magnetic  leakage  117        Ten,  powers  of 81 


INDEX. 


Tesla,  Nikola ...      28        Visiting  shops 74 

Theories,  absurd  and  useless  ...  145        Voltameters 63 

Theorists,  warfare  of 145 

Theorizing  by  incompetent  men  WHEATS-TONE  BRIDGE 61,62 

142,  143,  146        Wiring  diagrams 84 

Thermo-chemistry 5 1 ,  52  Workman,  student  engaging  as 

Thompson,  Elihu 28,183  common .93,94 

Thompson,  SylvanusP 116       Workmen,  idle 162, 163 

Thomson,    Sir  William  28,  68,  Workmen,  managing 161,162 

142,  152, 180  Workmen  placed  by  officers  of 

Thomson,  Sir  William:  viewson  companies 162 

mechanical  engineering 68       Work  of  lite 184 

Thoroughness 18,  74,  75  Work,  passing  judgment  upon  160 

Thought  and  reading 166  Works,  positions  in   large  vs. 

Torsion  instruments 65  small    94 

Trigonometry 84,  85  Works,  premiums  for  positions 

Truth 180  in 94,95 

Tufts  College 181  Works,  students'  courses  in ...     94 

TT                   _                                    co  Works,  time  required  for  stu- 

UNIVERSITY  EXTENSION 88  dents' courses  in 95 

VANITY 156,157        Writing  English 148 


JUST   PUBLISHED. 


MAGIC 

Stage  Illusions  and  Scientific  Diversions 

INCLUDING    TRICK    PHOTOGRAPHY. 


COMPILED    AND    EDITED    BY 
ALBERT  A.  HOPKINS. 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY. HENRY  RIDGELY    EVANS. 


This  is  a  new  and  unique  work  on  magic  art. 
It  contains  exposes  of  the  sleight-of-hand  feats  and 
illusions  of  the  most  famous  conjurors  of  modern 
times.  It  is  profusely  illustrated  with  over  400 
engravings.  The  subjects  treated  include  interest- 
ing Biographies  of  Celebrated  Conjurors,  the  Mys- 
teries of  Modern  Magic,  Ancient  Magic,  Science  in 
the  Theater,  Automata,  Curious  Toys,  and  Photo- 
graphic Diversions.  The  very  latest  developments 
in  each  line  will  be  given.  Thus,  under  photography 
the  projection  of  moving  pictures  is  taken  up  for 
the  first  time  in  book  form. 

An  illustrated  circular  of  this  work  will  be 
mailed  on  request  to  any  part  of  the  world. 

The  book  will  be  sent,  postpaid,  on  receipt  of  $2.50. 

MUNN  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

361  BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK  CITY. 


sunjwuuaM. 


A    001  244  432    9 


